By Sirshendu Panth, IANS,
Kolkata : Adrian Barath and Kirk Edwards were leading a possible salvage operation with an unseparated 93-run second wicket stand after the West Indies suffered the ignominy of a follow on against India at tea on day three of the second Test here Wednesday.
Barath (62 batting; 101 b, 10×4) and Edwards (43 batting; 76 b, 5×4, 1×6) defied the Indian bowlers for the most part of the post-lunch session as the Caribbeans reached 116/1 at tea, still needing 362 runs to make India bat again at the Eden Gardens.
Earlier in the day, the West Indies batting caved in without a fight against the spin-pace combination of Pragyan ojha (4-64) and Umesh Yadav (3-23). Facing India’s mammoth first innings total of 631/7 declared, West Indies were skittled out for 153 inside an extended morning session. The visitors had started the day at 34/2.
The Trinidadian-Barbadian duo, both of whom hold the distinction of scoring hundreds on Test debut, tried to reverse the plot in the second essay as they went for their shots after opener Kraigg Brathwaite (9) was dismissed by young in-form pacer Yadav early in the innings.
Brathwaite (9) edged a delivery outside the off stump and Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni took a good catch behind the stumps. It was Yadav’s third over and the tourists were 23/1.
Barath reached his third 50 in eight Tests with a single by pushing a Ravichandran Ashwin delivery in the point region but was lucky to survive a close leg before decision in the same over and at the same score.
The 27-year-old Edwards broke off from his cautious approach when he picked up Ojha for special treatment with a boundary through midd off and a six over long off in consecutive deliveries.