Positioned at a relatively comfortable 175-3 at tea, the tourists lost their way in the final session, losing seven wickets even as the Indian pacers made the most of the conditions to come up with a disciplined show.
At close, India were ten for no loss with V Jagadeesh (8) and Gautam Gambhir (2) holding fort.
Right-arm medium-pacer Nayar, who scored 89 runs and went wicketless in the second Test in Shimoga, finally came good with the ball.
He gave away 61 runs from 20.2 overs that included six maidens.
The contest swung in India's favour when Nayar dismantled the dominant pair of Narsingh Deonarine (35) and Leon Johnson (81), who added 70 runs off 125 balls for the third wicket to help the visitors recover from a disastrous start. Once Johnson and Deonarine perished, none of the West Indian batsmen could make an impact.
Post tea, Nayar, who celebrated his 30th birthday on Tuesday, removed Nikita Miller and Delorn Johnson to clean up the lower order. His Mumbai teammate Kulkarni too was on a roll, accounting for Powell, Assad Fudadin (47) and Jahmar Hamilton (15) and taking a spectacular overhead catch of Delorn Johnson off Nayar.
Veteran left-arm pacer Zaheer seemed to have regained his rhythm as he bowled 15 overs and five maidens while conceding a measly 33 runs for one wicket.
Earlier, Leon Johnson must have rued missing a century for the second straight time but the left-hander's patient knock helped the visitors shed the early blues besides entertaining the 10,000-odd crowd. Having been promoted to No.3 for the first time in the series, the southpaw played the waiting game, picking the right deliveries to hit. Having said that, the 26-year-old from Guyana was lucky to have survived two dropped chances.
Brief scores: West Indies 'A' 268 in 77.4 ovs (Johnson 81, Fudadin 47; Nayar 4/61, Kulkarni 3/60) vs India 'A' 10/0


0 comments:
Post a Comment