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The West Indies, known for their brazen strokeplay, must have watched with nostalgia the Indian tailenders throw their bats around with gay ...

The West Indies, known for their brazen strokeplay, must have watched with nostalgia the Indian tailenders throw their bats around with gay abandon on Saturday morning. After all, this was the sort of carefree hitting that their predecessors had made all their own and which had inspired many a Calypso.

Thus when it came to their turn to bat in the second essay, the Caribbean Calypsos decided that they would play the game in the style they knew best. If they still lost, then it would not be without a fight.

SCOREBOARD

West Indies (1st Innings): 167
India (1st Innings): S Bangar c Hooper b Dillon 40; V Sehwag b Collins 61; R Dravid b Lawson 11; S Tendulkar b Lawson 43; S Ganguly lbw Dillon 0; VVS Laxman c&b Breese 24; P Patel st Jacobs b Breese 23; Harbhajan Singh b Dillon 37; J Srinath run out 39; A Kumble not out 12; Z Khan run out 4; Extras: (b4, lb10, nb7, w1): 22; Total: 316
Fall of wkts: 1-93, 2-109, 3-155, 4-155, 5-180, 6-204, 7-255, 8-281, 9-305
Bowling: Dillon 26-11-44-3, Collins 23-5-59-1, Lawson 20-4-63-2, Breese 26.1-3-108-2, Hooper 6-2-19-0, R Hinds 5-1-9-0
West Indies (1st Innings): C Gayle c Kumble b Srinath 0, W Hinds c Ganguly b Harbhajan 61, R Sarwan batting 62, Chanderpaul c Harbhajan b Srinath 3, C Hooper c Patel b Kumble 46, R Hinds batting 1.
Extras (b9, lb1, nb3): 13. Total (for 4 wkts): 186
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-96, 3-107, 4-179.
Bowling: Srinath 9-4-16-2, Zaheer Khan 8-3-17-0, Harbhajan Singh 19-9-60-1, Kumble 19-2-74-1, Sehwag 2-0-9-0.

Going down with their guns blazing was preferable to losing despite excessive defensive play. Opting for offence as the form of defence, their batters took their chances against the Indian bowlers, particularly the spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

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Ramnaresh Sarwan and Wavell Hinds set the tone for the assault on the spinners. Later, skipper Carl Hooper who got into his stride with two big sixes off Kumble, took over. It was his parternershp with Sarwan that pieced together when the West Indies were tottering at 107 for three, not only wiped out the arrears of 149 runs, but seriously threatened to take the fight into the Indian camp.

Earlier, after Chris Gayle perished in the first over, the other opener, Wavell Hinds pushed through with the West Indies strategy of trying to put the attack to the sword.