Darren Bravo tormented India’s bowlers with a classy 166 as West Indies racked up a mammoth 575 for nine in their first innings yesterday, virtually ending the hosts’ hopes of inflicting a whitewash in the final Test at Wankhede Stadium.
The visitors thrashed the home attack on an easy-paced surface on the second day of the third Test, before debutant paceman Varun Aaron picked up three wickets in four overs to force a mini collapse in the last session.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin added two more to his overnight tally of two wickets as the West Indies, trailing 2-0 in the series, added 308 runs to their total.
Bravo continued his rich vein of form, notching up his third ton in the past four Tests, his first career century coming against Bangladesh in Mirpur last month.
The top six West Indies batsmen all made half-centuries, forcing India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to resort to desperate measures, including bringing on Sachin Tendulkar to bowl, in search of wickets on a placid pitch.
Bravo, the 22-year-old left-hander, brought up his second successive ton with an elegant square-driven boundary off Ashwin and celebrated by kissing his bat, before raising it aloft.
The stylish Bravo, who made 136 in the second innings in the previous Test in Kolkata, started the day with two straight-driven fours off Aaron and looked extremely comfortable at the crease throughout his extended stay.
The cousin of former West Indies batting great Brian Lara hit 17 boundaries during his 284-ball stay, the only blemish coming on Tuesday, when Rahul Dravid dropped him at slip on 33 off left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha’s bowling.
Bravo was Aaron’s maiden Test wicket when he edged the paceman to Dhoni, going for a drive away from his body.
Resuming on 267-2, Bravo and Kirk Edwards (86) added 164 for the third wicket, before the latter edged paceman Ishant Sharma to wicketkeeper Dhoni on the stroke of the first drinks break of the day.
Bravo then added 160 for the fourth wicket with Kieran Powell (81) as the tourists recorded a third century partnership of the innings.
Powell, who replaced the injured Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the team, made the most of his opportunity and hit nine fours before he edged Ojha to Dhoni, while going for an extravagant backfoot drive.
Dhoni took five catches behind the stumps, but dropped a difficult low catch off Marlon Samuels (61) when the batsman was on 46, off the bowling off Aaron.
Samuels went on to complete his 13th half-century, before he edged Ashwin to Dravid at slip.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was