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Bhuvneshwar swings through West Indies to give India shot at win
- Updated: August 13, 2016
India 353 and 157 for 3 (Rahane 51*) lead West Indies 225 (Brathwaite 64, Bhuvneshwar 5-33) by 285 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details
Despite a rained-out day and the slow rate of scoring in the first two innings, 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 side with a spell of 11.4-6-16-5 as West Indies went from 202 for 3 to 225 all out.
With 98 overs to go in the match and a lead of 285 in the bag, India could think of declaring soon on the fifth morning. They made a good start to the endeavour, scoring 157 for 3 in the 39 overs they got on day four, a rate well higher than the 2.48 an over in the first two innings.
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.
There’s a reason why Bhuvneshwar was Kohli’s last resort. He bowled the entire match-changing spell without a fine leg. No fine leg, no long leg, no backward square leg. No man behind square on the leg side. Kohli prefers his wickets with batsmen fending at express quicks. It was a sign that the young captain is not stubborn in that he first selected Bhuvneshwar and then gave him the field that works with his bowling. Bhuvneshwar was about to show him the other way of taking wickets.
Kohli had taken the new ball as soon as it became available just before lunch despite the struggles of Jermaine Blackwood and Marlon Samuels against the turning old ball. It was a session in which an India bowler took a wicket for the first time in 528 legal deliveries. If the last wicket off a bowler shouldn’t have been given out – Shane Dowrich on the last day in Jamaica – the legality of this 528th delivery was in …
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