Centuries from Daren Ganga and Ramnaresh Sarwan set the tone for a mammothWest Indian total before the Indians fought back through some disciplinedbowling on yet another rain-hit day in the third Test today.
The hosts were cruising at 420 for five in the first innings at tea whenthunderstorms washed out the remainder of the second day's play at the WarnerPark stadium.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (24) and Marlon Samuels (eight) were at the creasewhen play was called off.
The West Indies owed their total to a double century partnership betweenGanga and Sarwan who made the most of a benign track to collar the Indianattack.
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Ganga, 64 overnight, registered his third Test century with a sedate 135 thatconsumed 294 balls and included 15 fours.
Sarwan, celebrating his 26th birthday, was more enterprising in cracking hisninth career hundred, a 174-ball 116 filled with 17 fours and a six.
Munaf Patel (3-120) led the Indian fightback through two quick dismissals, ofGanga and Brian Lara, towards lunch while Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh picked awicket each in the second session.
Sreesanth dimissed Sarwan who could add only three runs to his score afterlunch and Harbhajan picked his bunny Dwayne Bravo to stem the flow of runs.
Ganga and Sarwan put on 205 runs for the second wicket in the two and halfhours of morning session when the hosts added 155 runs.
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Ganga, playing his 37th match, recorded his third and the highest-ever scorein Tests before he played on a Patel delivery.
Sarwan enjoyed a particularly riveting moment of batting artistry when heslammed Patel for six fours in an over.
It was the fourth over with the second new ball, Patel's 19th of the innings,when Sarwan unleashed some classical drives and cuts against the gangling Indianbowler.
Sarwan, unbeaten on 77 when the over started, jumped to 99 by the time it wasclosed, the 25 runs from the over including a no-ball.
It was only the third time when a batsman had slammed six fours in an over ina Test match.
Sandeep Patil did it against Bob Willis in Manchester in 1982 and Chris Gaylethrashed Matthew Hoggard of England at the Oval during the 2004 series.
Ganga, unbeaten on 64 on Thursday, was the first to reach his hundred when hesquare cut Patel to the cover boundary.
Sarwan reached his mark quicker when he flicked Sreesanth for a single tofine leg, having batted for just over three hours and hit 16 fours from 186balls.
The hosts, sitting pretty at 362 for 3 at lunch, added only 58 runs in thetwo hours from the afternoon's play.
Sarwan departed when he fell leg before wicket to a full-pitched deliveryfrom Sreesanth.
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The right hander batted for 267 minutes in all and hit 17 fours and a six inhis 174-ball knock.
The dismissal of Bravo (21) was a great relief for Harbhajan as the batsmanattempted a steer off him and succeeded only in edging it to wicketkeeperMahendra Singh Dhoni.
PTI
