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favour of India.
West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite (75 off 235 balls) used his enormous powers of concentration to frustrate the Indian attack on an insipid track before world’s No. 1 Test bowler held the centre stage with a magical moment that brought the smiles back in the Indian camp.
Toiling for close to 73 overs on a track which at best can be called ”dead”, Ashwin (33-10-61-1) bowled a delivery that had flight and required inward drift which was good enough to entice Brathwaite to plonk his front-foot for his umpteenth defensive prod.
But to his horror, the ball turned sharply, an off-spinner’s dream delivery that went between bat and pad to hit the stumps. A compact defensive player, Brathwaite’s only fault was pushing his bat slightly ahead of his pad instead of keeping it close. It allowed the ball to exploit the gap to the fullest.
The Queens Park Oval track has literally nothing in it for bowlers and with West Indies batters intent to block more deliveries, creating chances became all the more difficult.
The figures of Ravindra Jadeja at that stage (25-10-37-2) was an indication enough that defending wasn’t difficult as he hardly bowled any wicket-taking deliveries during the post-lunch session.
Indians will be hoping to bring curtains to Windies innings at the earliest on Day 4 to further drive home the advantage.