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The Indian juggernaut rolls on October 21, 2002 The West Indies team is in a hopeless situation - their batting is brittle, catching atrocious while their bowling lacks purpose. They seemed to have lost the Chennai Test even before a single ball was bowled. The first sight of the cracks in the track at Chennai probably drained away all their hopes of giving this buoyant Indian side a fight. Hooper's decision to bat first was based on his knowledge that the pitch would turn increasingly as the days went by. India, though, played some smart cricket on the first day and wrested the advantage quite nicely.
When India replied, Virender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar got the team off to another good start. With the duo's continuing success, I feel the quest for a good opening pair must now be called off. A batsman like Sehwag, in particular, is a constant headache for any opening bowler. The West Indies did not help their cause by dropping catches offered by him and a few of the other Indian batsmen. As any bowler would tell you there is little he can do if his fielders fail him. The West Indies fielders, who dropped almost ten catches in the match, then do not deserve the slightest mercy. Their failure meant that the lion-hearted efforts of Mervyn Dillon and debutant Jermaine Lawson were wasted. Talking of Lawson, he is a special bowler who needs to be groomed and guided. I am quite impressed with the pace he generates. Anyone who bowls at about 150 kmph is a genuine threat to any batsman. It has been quite some time since we saw someone like him from the Caribbean Isles. It will always be to young Lawson's credit that he claimed the wickets of Dravid and Tendulkar in his debut Test. He certainly has a bright future ahead of him. That said I would have loved to see a few of the India batsmen go on to make a big score. Against better teams, they will certainly have to be more focused on their job. If the Windies fielders had held on to all the catches, India would have really struggled to claim a good enough lead. One man who, however, did not get even a fair chance to prove his mettle was Sourav Ganguly. My heart goes out to the Indian captain; he has been getting some shocking decisions lately. I hope he will bounce back with a big hundred at his home ground - Eden Gardens. When the West Indies batted for the second time, it was good to see the application shown by young Ramnaresh Sarwan. I am sure that the day when he scores his first Test hundred is not too far away . India would certainly not complain about only three West Indies batsmen getting to double digits but surely it must be a major concern for the Windies management. Their decision to leave out Mahendra Nagamootoo from the Chennai Test is a clear indicator that nothing is working for the Caribbean team.
The West Indies are in a hopeless situation and the onus is on India to make a clean sweep of this Test series. They are on a roll and the boys would do well to keep the winning streak going on. © Cricinfo
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