Harbhajan Singh became the 11th bowler in history to capture 400 Test wickets, while Ishant Sharma again bowled impressively in the rain-lashed third Test between India and the West Indies on Thursday.
India were 8-0 replying to the West Indies’ first innings total of 204, when a combination of rain and bad light stopped play early on the second day at Windsor Park, where only 49.2 overs were possible.
Out of the statutory 180 overs that should have been bowled over the first two days, only 80.3 have been completed, as typically seasonal weather has ravaged the Dominica capital, which is hosting a Test for the first time.
Photo: AFP
Sharma upstaged Harbhajan, taking 5-77 from 21.3 overs.
Harbhajan, playing his 96th Test for India, bowled Carlton Baugh for the West Indies top score of 60 about 1 hour, 20 minutes after lunch to achieve the milestone.
Only former captains Anil Kumble (619) and Kapil Dev (434) have taken more wickets for the visitors than Harbhajan.
He is also the fourth spin bowler to take 400 wickets in Tests, following in the footsteps of fellow off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, whose 800 scalps are the most, Australia’s Shane Warne (708), and Kumble. Harbhajan finished with 2-26 from 15 overs, and Praveen Kumar took 2-22 from 16 overs.
Before lunch, India had continued to exploit the brittle West Indies batting line-up, removing Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels, when play resumed 20 minutes later than regularly scheduled, with the hosts on their overnight 75 for three.
Munaf Patel struck in the fourth over of the day, when Chanderpaul was slightly squared-up by a perfectly-pitched delivery moving away, edged, and was caught behind by India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for 23, following a 49-run stand with Bravo.
Kumar tightened India’s grip, when Samuels attempted a lazy drive at a delivery outside the off-stump, and was bowled for nine, dragging the ball into the stumps off the inside edge, leaving the West Indies 99 for five.
The Indian bowlers came under a little pressure in the final half-hour before the interval when Baugh arrived and inspired some positive play from Bravo. An imperious drive through extra cover off Sharma brought Bravo his fifth boundary, and Baugh swung Harbhajan over square leg for 6 before he cut Suresh Raina through square cover for 4 as the West Indies reached 128 for 5 at lunch.
After the interval, Sharma made the breakthrough for India when he cut short the counterattacking stand of 59 for the sixth wicket between Baugh and Bravo.
The beanpole fast bowler had Bravo caught behind for an even 50, playing defensively forward to a well-pitched delivery. The West Indies left-hander spent a little over three and a quarter hours at the crease, and struck eight fours from 134 balls.
India continued to leak runs and the West Indies inched closer to the 200-run mark, when their captain Darren Sammy joined Baugh, and put on a valuable 41 for the seventh wicket.
Harbhajan however, stemmed the flow of runs, and triggered a batting collapse that saw the West Indies lose their last four wickets for five runs from 57 balls.
He had Sammy caught at forward short-leg for 20 and then reached his landmark when Baugh, whose innings contained six fours and one six from 79 balls, made room to cut, played over the top of the delivery and had his stumps shattered. Sharma then returned to wrap up the tail, removing Fidel Edwards for 3 and Devendra Bishoo for a duck in successive overs.
India hold a 1-0 lead in the three Test series, following a 63-run victory inside four days in Jamaica, and a draw in the second Test at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier