India vs West Indies, 2nd Test

India vs West Indies, 2nd Test

Completely India's session! The hosts have taken lunch in a position of great strength even as the West Indies unsuccessfully continue to find ways to stall the Indian march.

 

 

India won the toss and elected to bat
Lunch: India 132 for 1 in 28 overs. Gambhir is on 57 while Rahul Dravid is on 33
Darren Sammy, after taking severe beating, has had the last laugh! He has removed the dangerous Virender Sehwag just when he was beginning to look ominous.

WICKET Over 12.1: Sehwag c Barath b Sammy (38) Sloppy shot! It was a fullish delivery and in the slot, but Sehwag's attempt to clip it in the air on the leg side wasn't all that successful. The ball went low in the air to Adrian Barath at mid-on and he latched on it for dear life.

Meanwhile, West Indies captain Darren Sammy said he would have chosen to bat as well. "Playing cricket in India is a place you want to be, the way they support the game, the calibre of the players around." Two changes for the West Indies - Roach comes in for Rampaul, and Barath comes in for Powell
Amid all the attention surrounding Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid has the chance to complete 13000 runs in this game.
Meanwhile, VVS Laxman averages a whopping 95 at this ground.

Playing eleven
India: G Gambhir, V Sehwag, R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (capt and wk), R Ashwin, I Sharma, PP Ojha, U Yadav

West Indies: AB Barath, KC Brathwaite, KA Edwards, DM Bravo, S Chanderpaul, MN Samuels, CS Baugh†, DJG Sammy (capt), FH Edwards, D Bishoo, KAJ Roach

Preview
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and orthodox left-armer Pragyan Ojha shared 16 wickets during India's five-wicket success in the series opener in Delhi.
Ashwin claimed match figures of 9-128 on debut to fully justify his selection ahead of the far more experienced Harbhajan Singh.
The selectors are particularly keen for India to clinch series honours in Kolkata to allow them to experiment with their line-up in the third and final Test, in Mumbai from November 22-26, before they head off on tour to Australia in December.
"We're hoping we can take a 2-0 lead because that will allow us to start preparing for the Australia tour early," chief selector Kris Srikkanth said.
"A win in this Test will help us try some different ideas."
Srikkanth's comments suggest some of the top-order batsmen could be rested in Mumbai, including local hero Sachin Tendulkar, who remains one century short of 100 in international cricket.
Tendulkar scored his 99th at the World Cup back in March but has since gone 14 innings without reaching three figures.
His nearest miss came at the Oval in August when England seamer Tim Bresnan trapped him lbw for 91 and he also looked on course during the second innings in Delhi, only to be again given out lbw, this time on 76 to leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo's bowling.
West Indies captain Darren Sammy knows his team's batsmen must produce an improved showing against spin.
Sammy wants more support for middle-order lynchpin Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who notched his 24th Test century during the first innings at Feroz Shah Kotla.
"As soon as the spinners settled we went into a shell," admitted Sammy. "Maybe we could bat a bit more positively like Shiv showed us."

Tendulkar unhappy with Eden sight screan:
Eden Gardens's low sight screens have once again become a major point of concern ahead of India's second Test against the West Indies with Sachin Tendulkar requesting the state association to raise the height for a better view against the tall West Indian bowlers.
Tendulkar, just one short of 100 international centuries, made a plea to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) who later said they would cooperate fully as the Mumbai maestro was approaching an incredible milestone.
During India's net session, Tendulkar seemed unhappy with the Eden sightscreens again as he had a long chat with CAB officials Biswarup Dey and Gautam Dasgputa, pointing at the sight screens on both the ends.
Tendulkar also pointed at the patches of grass that was distinctly visible at the high-court end and it appeared that it would be trimmed the day before the match so as to assist the Indian spinners.
CAB joint-secretary Dey said it was just a sincere request from Tendulkar and they would do their best to cooperate with him.
"Tendulkar is eyeing a very important milestone in his career. 100th international century is a never-before record. CAB will fully cooperate to raise the height, by covering few rows of seats in the lower tier."
The raise in height in both the ends, incidentally, would cost CAB about 1500 seats and Dey said it's up to them to decide on that.
The Eden sight screens have long been a problem and during the World Cup, ICC technical team also objected to the lower height as the stadium lost out on India's sole fixture at the venue.
Eventually CAB had to comply with the ICC guidelines of 25 feet height and 50 feet width sight screen before getting an ICC clearance.
The current height is 16 feet which has been achieved by covering a few lower tier seats with white clothes behind the two sight screens.
Asked why CAB was not getting a permanent solution to this, Dey passed on the buck to the curator.
"I don't know much about the height details. It's the curator who determines the height and all."
Meanwhile, curator Prabir Mukherjee said he doest not have any say in this and it's the match referee and umpires who decide on this.
"Match referee and umpires are the technical persons. It's not my work to see who has what problems. It's not my job."
On the grass left on the strip, Mukherjee said usual mowing would be done on Sunday before a quick roll on the wicket.

Stats and trivia
- The anxiety among the nation is palpable, but Sachin Tendulkar has gone only five Tests and four ODIs without a hundred.

- If West Indies don't win one of the next two Tests, they will have spent a decade since they last beat India, in Jamaica in May 2002. They have won at least one Test against all other teams, barring New Zealand since 2002.

- This will be Fidel Edwards' 50th Test. No West Indies fast bowler since Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh has reached 50 Tests. Eleven West Indies bowlers have taken more wickets than Edwards' 151.