Shami four leave West Indies seven down

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Tea West Indies 157 for 7 (Holder 9*, Dowrich 6*, Shami 4-41) trail India 566 for 8 decl. by 409 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Mohammed Shami struck telling blows © Associated Press

Mohammed Shami bowled through the 2015 World Cup with a busted knee. By the end of it he needed a surgery, lost out on the IPL earnings and missed more than a year of international cricket. In what is a first such recorded instance, the BCCI compensated him for the loss of IPL money. Once he was fit again, Shami walked into the Test XI in Antigua, and showed why he is a man worth looking after. On a slow pitch that it looked difficult to get batsmen who didn’t play shots, Shami bowled with menace to take four wickets after which Umesh Yadav struck to leave West Indies seven down at tea on the third day. Kraigg Brathwaite, a man known for such quiet defiance, denied India for 218 balls, but India first found a way around him and then broke through him about 20 minutes before tea.

From the time Brathwaite and nightwatchman Devendra Bishoo frustrated India for 16 overs, it was clear India bowlers would need to prise the wickets out. Patience, the buzzword leading into the series, was tested. The patience was more notional than literal: India didn’t lose hope, but they kept trying things. In the half hour leading into lunch, Virat Kohli changed the bowling from one end every two overs. Until the wickets came, they tried the short ball, looked for the outside edge, and the bowlers themselves tried different angles on the crease.

A measure of difficulty of taking 20 wickets against a patient batting unit was that both the wickets in the first session came through injudicious shots. It was otherwise a session when West Indies didn’t look for runs, which made it difficult for wickets to come. The resistance was led by Brathwaite, who rode his luck a little at the start of the day’s play. Both Brathwaite and Bishoo did. When Brathwaite was attacked with a forward and backward short leg, he failed to keep the balls angled into his ribs down on at least three occasions, but managed to avoid the fielders. Bishoo’s outside edge was beaten at least seven times. It would have frustrated India all the more that Bishoo faced only 15 balls in the first eight overs of the morning.

The early jitters out of the way, Brathwaite dug in for the kind of innings he is known for. He looked the most unsettled in the fifth over of the day when he tucked Shami slightly wide of short square leg, followed by a waft at a wide delivery when the edge flew over slip. That was the last mistake he made. Bowling outside off to him, if not a long half-volley, was a waste of energy running all the way and banging the ball in.

At the other end, though, India began to make inroads. Amit Mishra, introduced ahead of R Ashwin, provided the first breakthrough when Bishoo played an impatient sweep shot and dragged his foot over to be stumped. Just before lunch, Kohli sensed an opportunity and went back to Shami, who had been desperately unlucky in his first spell of 6-1-16-0.

Running in with shorter strides than before he had got injured, Shami glided in and remained threatening even if the batsmen were patient. Darren Bravo wasn’t even patient. This was the time India were getting restless, but he calmed them down by flirting with a wide delivery five minutes before lunch. The ball did bounce more than expected to take the edge, but Bravo had played with an angled bat with his feet stuck on the leg stump.

On the way back for lunch, Kohli was heard telling his bowlers, “This is the reward for patience.” More was to follow in the second session. Marlon Samuels, who might be playing his last Test series, is not a proactive batsman. He likes top sit back on the back foot, and lets bowlers bowl where they want. Shami did so soon enough, in the fifth voer after lunch. He bowled an in-between length, which dragged Samuels forward even though hs weight was back. The ball held its line to take the edge. An aggressive short ball took the shoulder of Jermaine Blackwood’s bat to end a double-wicket maiden. This was the first dismissal that didn’t include Wriddhiman Saha.

From 92 for 5, Brathwaite and debutant Roston Chase resisted for more than 16 overs, but now was the time for Yadav to strike. Yadav is often guilty of not using the crease and also offering freebies on the pads. He did offer freebies here too, especially in the first session, but he showed a clear intent of using different angles to make the batsmen play at balls they would otherwise leave. The reward came unconventionally.

Chase pulled an inviting short ball straight down the lap of short midwicket followed by a brute to Brathwaite, who on 74 didn’t look like he was going to make a mistake anytime soon. Yadav went wide on the crease, angled a bouncer in, got Brathwaite to throw his gloves in front of his face, and gave Saha his fifth victim. Barring incredible resistance, India were expected to have to decide whether to enforce the follow-on in the final session.

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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