GROS ISLET, St Lucia, CMC – West Indies suffered the indignity of being bowled out for their second lowest total ever against India as they crashed to a 237-run defeat in the third Test, after barely surviving two sessions on the final day here yesterday.
Set an improbable 346 to win after India declared about 45 minutes into the morning session, West Indies’ capitulation was as meek as it was swift, as they slumped to 108 all out on the stroke of the scheduled tea interval at the Darren Sammy National Stadium.
Left-hander Darren Bravo top-scored with 59 but was one of only one three frontline batsmen to reach double figures and the only one to pass 12, in a humiliating display that saw India grab an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
Seamer Mohammed Shami snatched three for 15 while left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (2-20) and pacer Ishant Sharma (2-30) supported with two wickets apiece.
Rookie fast bowler Miguel Cummins had earlier taken career-best figures of six for 48 to end with match figures of 12 for 102 as India, resuming the day on 157 for three, added 60 runs from nine overs, before declaring their second innings at 217 for seven.
Ajinkya Rahane converted his overnight 51 into an unbeaten 78, made from 116 deliveries in 2-1/4 hours with two fours but Rohit Sharma failed to add to his overnight 41, falling lbw to Cummins off the second ball of the day.
Wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha made a run-a-ball 14 before nicking Cummins behind to give the Barbadian his fourth wicket and Jadeja struck a six in 16 from 14 balls before he skied the same bowler to cover, to hand him his maiden five-wicket haul in only his second Test.
In the same over, the last of the innings, Ravi Ashwin cut to Kraigg Brathwaite at backward point to depart for one, leaving captain Virat Kohli to call his players in.
West Indies quickly found themselves in trouble, losing both openers to slump to four runs for two wickets after five overs.
Leon Johnson failed to score, taken at forward short leg off seamer Mohammed Shami and Brathwaite followed three deliveries later in the next over, playing around one from pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar that came back, to be palpably lbw for four.
Marlon Samuels struck two fours in 12 as he added 31 for the third wicket with Bravo before losing his off-stump to seamer Ishant Sharma, trying to cut one too close to him.
Bravo and Roston Chase survived the remaining half-hour before lunch to take West Indies to the break on 55 for three but things fell apart thereafter.
The right-handed Chase could not repeat his Sabina Park heroics and fell in the sixth over after lunch without adding to his 10 at the interval, bowled by an in-swinger from Ishant.
With four runs added at 68 for five, Jermaine Blackwood edged a waft at Jadeja to wicketkeeper Saha and Shane Dowrich stayed around for just over half-hour in making five before getting one from Mohammed Shami that straightened, and edged to Kohli at second slip.
West Indies’ misery was epitomized when captain Jason Holder (1) pushed into the offside and took off for a suicide single. He was promptly sent back by Bravo but failed to beat Ashwin’s direct hit, leaving the Windies on the brink at 88 for seven.
Bravo, unbeaten on 29 at lunch, moved to his 15th Test half-century in style approaching the hour mark after lunch. He lifted Jadeja over mid-wicket for four and off the next delivery, cleared the ropes at long on to go to 49. A single off the same bowler an over later, saw him to his landmark.
But with wickets tumbling around him, Bravo too surrendered, edging Mohammed Shami onto his pad to give Rohit a looping catch at short leg.
With the result all but decided, Alzarri Joseph (0) and Shannon Gabriel (11) submitted without fight, as India claimed their second Test win on a Caribbean tour for the first time.
