India vs West Indies - 2nd Test

Cricket is called a game of glorious uncertainties. This showed again in the last day of the second test between India and West Indies. On the fourth day which was mostly rained off India managed to get 4 top order wickets for just 48 runs in the 15.5 overs bowled. However in the fifth day it was a different story. 

The last day of the Test match was a clear day with the sun shining hard play started on time. Anyone would have thought that 98.1 overs were more than enough to dislodge the West Indian middle and lower order. However things took a different turn. First Blackwood and Chase formed an excellent partnership 93 runs. They scored the runs very fast, in fact Blackwood got one of the fastest fifty ever made in a test match by a West Indian player. 

At the fall of Blackwood's wicket, Dowrich came in to bat, Chase and Dowrich batted aggressively. They added 144 runs to their partnership but unfortunately Dowrich got a bad decision from umpire Ian Gould and was adjudged out LBW. At the fall of Dowrich's wicket captain Jason Holder came in to bat and he made the most of the situation scoring 64 of 99 balls. 

Chase who got 5 wickets in Indian innings scored a brilliant 137 not out of 269 balls. India were able to take only 2 wickets in the 88 odd overs bowled by them. 

It was indeed a huge surprise to see the batting that was tottering against Indian bowling put up such a positive and spirited display. This performance should have increased the self confidence of the people involved  in the partnerships on the 5th day. We can expect to see better batting performance from West Indies for the rest of the series, it may rub into their bowling performance as well. 

Chase was rightly given the Man of the Match award for his all round performance. 

Rain in second Test - India vs West Indies- Jamica

Weather and cricket are closely related. The greatest enemy of cricket is rain. Soccer can be played even when it is raining, there are many other sports that can be played in rain. However cricket is not one of them. Even a slight drizzle can result in the stoppage of a match. Surprisingly it is observed that rain follows cricket. Even deserts like Sharjah received rains when cricket matches were scheduled there.

While the Indian team has dominated all the session in the second test with West Indies, the only thing that stands between India and a possible innings victory is the weather. Yesterday, a session and half was lost due to rain. This happened immediately after India declared the innings at 500/9. At the moment India has a healthy lead of 304 runs, with all pace and spin bowlers in form, an Indian victory seems imminent. 

However the weather forecast for today is not great either. There is storm and heavy rains forecasted. If the weather report turns out to be correct then we can lose the entire day today not a single ball may be bowled. One just hopes that the weathermen got it wrong or the storm weakens before hitting the shore. 

That leaves us to tomorrow however the wet ground and pitch may lead to further delay and India may get very few overs to bowl West Indies out. India scored their runs slowly, had they batted faster the declaration would have come earlier and it would have been possible to bowl few overs to the Windies batsmen who were struggling in the first innings. 

The nature is not under anyone's control one can just keep the fingers crossed and hope that we get maximum possible cricket with little or no rain. Everyone wants to see Indian pace trio and Ashwin and Mishra pick up wickets. It is up to the West Indian batsman's ability and technique, if they are to save the match.