Harbhajan Singh's magical fingers and Rahul Dravid's steady hand saw Indiastorm their way back and take control of the fourth and final Test against theWest Indies after a dramatic second day's play on Saturday.
Down and out after being bowled out for a meagre 200 on the first day, thetourists hit back with vengeance to skittle out the West Indies for a paltry 103and take a sizeable 97-run first innings lead.
Harbhajan exploited the awkward bounce of the Sabina Park track to claim hiscareer-best five for 13, also his 19th fiver in Tests, from only 4.3 overs asthe hosts were bundled out for their lowest ever total against India in 33.3overs.
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Dravid then stepped up to play an innings of character and vision in scoringan unbeaten 62, his second fifty of the match, and shepherded India to arelative position of strength, 128 for six, at stumps.
On a minefield of a track that consumed 16 wickets in the day, the Indianskipper showed technique and patience as he batted 130 balls and struck 11fours.
During the course of his innings, when on 19, Dravid completed his 9,000 runsin Test cricket.
Dravid received brief but vital support from V.V.S. Laxman (16), Yuvraj Singh(13) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (19), and the combined effort gave India anoverall lead of 225 runs that could turn out to be more than a handful for BrianLara's men.
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India's start in the second knock was as terrible as it was in the firstessay yesterday.
Wasim Jaffer (1) sparred at a rising delivery from Jerome Taylor on theoff-stump and edged a catch to the third slip fielder.
Virender Sehwag (4) decided early it wasn't his kind of wicket and soonenough he was trudging his way back to pavilion, leg before to Taylor again.
Laxman then did enough with Dravid to put the innings back on rails. The twonegotiated over after over before the Hyderabadi batsman edged a catch to BrianLara at third slip.
Yuvraj then drove wildly at Corey Collymore and edged it to slips whileMohammed Kaif was cleaned up by Pedro Collins.
India were then 76 for five but the initiative was seized back through 46-runsixth wicket stand between Dravid and Dhoni before the latter's middle stump waspegged back by Taylor.
During the course of the stand, Dravid reached his second half century of thematch when he straight drove Taylor to the fence. It took him 102 balls andarrived in 161 minutes, containing 10 fours.
Anil Kumble, who featured in a 93-run stand with his skipper in the firstinnings, was accompanying him on two not out at close.
Earlier, Sreesanth gave India early breakthroughs while returning with 2-34before Harbhajan ran circles around the West Indian batsmen.
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Sreesanth had opener Chris Gayle (0) in his very first over and lateraccounted for Lara.
Lara began with a thunderous pull and then picked up two fours off successiveballs.
The first one was a sweetly timed off-drive and he then flicked a deliveryfrom the middle of his stumps to fine leg even as bowler Sreesanth let out anagonizing yell.
Lara then shifted his attention on Kumble and first flicked and then straightdrove him for boundaries.
Even as Lara began to take the attack into the opposition camp, Sreesanthproduced a delivery which bounced from a good length and took the edge of ahopping Lara's bat into the hands of Jaffer at gully.
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Lara faced 40 balls for his 26 runs and hit five fours.
Harbhajan began the operations before lunch and claimed opener Daren Ganga(40) with his second delivery.
He continued with his unfinished over after lunch and promptly claimed onemore success when Dwayne Bravo flicked a catch into the hands of the forwardshort leg fielder.
Harbhajan claimed one more wicket in his next over when Ramnaresh Sarwan (7)spooned up a catch at mid-wicket region.
He then accounted for Denesh Ramdin (10) and Collins (0) to round up the WestIndian innings.
West Indies, who were 80 for 5 at lunch, lost their remaining five wickets inless than eight overs on resumption.
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In all, they lost their final six wickets for the addition of 23 runs.
The West Indies' previous lowest total was 127 they made at Ferozeshah Kotladuring the 1987-88 series.
PTI
