Bhuvneshwar swings India 128-run lead

West Indies 225 (Brathwaite 64, Bhuvneshwar 5-33) trail India 353 by 128 runsLive scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Despite a rained-out day and the slow rate of scoring runs through the match, India entertained thoughts of winning the St Lucia Test thanks to a masterful spell of swing bowling from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Playing his first Test in a year and a half, Bhuvneshwar swung through the West Indies batting with a spell of 11.4-6-16-5 as West Indies went from 202 for 3 to 225 all out. With four sessions and half an hour to go in the match, and a lead of 128 in the bag, India could think of giving the hosts close to a day to survive, although that would need faster scoring than the match rate of 2.48 an over.

Bhuvneshwar, and for that matter Ravindra Jadeja, is not Virat Kohli’s first choice. He prefers Umesh Yadav’s pace and Amit Mishra’s legspin. Post lunch on day four, with West Indies going fairly well in their quest to ensure they don’t lose this Test, it was Bhuvneshwar and Jadeja who turned the match around with the second new ball.

Bhuvneshwar bowled with such immaculate control that he could operate without a fine leg. Both Jermaine Blackwood and Marlon Samuels were set, they had added 59 when they came back from lunch, they can both punish errors in line, but through the spell Bhuvneshwar conceded only two shots to fine leg. Blackwood was the first one to go, having faced 15 straight dots from Bhuvneshwar, who bowled a length fuller than he did with the first new ball. The 16th was an outswinger that Blackwood, who loves bat on ball, couldn’t resist. Kohli took one of the more predictable edges at second slip.

It took less persistence to set Samuels, 48, up. With Blackwood facing the Bhuvneshwar swing almost exclusively, it was only during the 10th over with the new ball that Samuels was presented to Bhuvneshwar. This time Bhuvneshwar was in no mood for slow cooking. Four outswingers later, Bhuvneshwar went wide on the crease, slipped in an inswinger, and Samuels, surprised by it all, played on.

Kohli brought Jadeja on at the other end, and he kept creating trouble with the ones that went straight on. The one that turned, though, got the man that denied India in Jamaica, Roston Chase. Bhuvneshwar’s masterclass …

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