West Indies v India - Test Series – 3rd Test ends in a draw as India wins series 1-0
West Indies managed to secure a draw in the last match of the Digicel Test Series against India but the visitors still won the series by a narrow margin of 1-0.
At the start of play on day five, India were firm favourites to beat the home team in the last match and the cricket analysts were expecting the number one ranked Test team of the world to beat West Indies by 2-0 in the series.
However, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/A-Wall-c41352 between India and victory. The seasoned left hander played a brilliant knock in trying circumstances and shielded the lower order batsmen.
The home team started the last day at 224 for the loss of six wickets and was leading by only 81 runs. Chanderpaul and the Caribbean captain accumulated some crucial runs before the latter was caught at forward short-leg off the bowling
of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Harbhajan-Singh-c61453. However, the replays showed that the ball had not touched the bat or the gloves.
Soon there was another setback for West Indies as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Fidel-Henderson-Edwards-c57010.
The two of them scored 65 runs for the ninth wicket partnership, while the experienced left hander completed his outstanding hundred, which turned out to be a match-saving one.
Part time off-spinner, Suresh Raina surprised everyone by claiming the last two scalps of the Caribbean innings. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 were dismissed for 322 runs in their second innings.
Chanderpaul remained unbeaten on 116 runs for which he consumed 343 balls with the help of five boundaries. Although, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kirk-Anton-Edwards-c71510 also scored a hundred but the wily campaigner remained the top scorer for the home team and showed his class.
The left hander proved that there is no substitute to experience and the selectors made a huge mistake by ignoring him earlier in the season.
Edwards also played a very crucial knock of 30 runs and helped his senior partner save the match for their team.
Harbhajan shined for India with four wickets but a spinner of his quality should have run through the West Indian batting on the last day of the Test match.
In the last innings of the match, India faced an early setback as they lost their opener, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/R-Dravid-c2229 consolidated the innings for the visitors.
At one stage, India thought about trying to chase the score as they promoted http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SK-Raina-c2539 up the order to increase the run-rate, however, the decision backfired as the left hander was caught and bowled by Rampaul very early in his innings.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 were at 94 runs for the loss of three wickets when both captains decided to call it a day and the match ended in a draw.
Chanderpaul was named as the Player of the Match for his outstanding knock, while http://www.senore.com/Cricket/I-Sharma-c1566 was titled the Player of the Series.
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