Ashwin, Saha show tons of grit, put India ahead in third Test

Off-spinner scores second hundred of the series and the keeper his maiden as visitors cross the 300-run mark.

Sometimes boring can be effective. For almost the entire first day, India seemed to have forgotten that. Cut to the second day though, R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha reinstated that belief with almost Zen-like patience and confidence. India gained massively from their approach. Ashwin got his fourth Test century --- second in this series --- while Saha suddenly shifted gears to reach his maiden century almost as quickly as his partner. In the process they raised a 213-run partnership for the sixth wicket and India were back on track with their plans of batting once in this match.

Ravichandran Ashwin celebrates after his century against West Indies. His teammate Wriddhiman Saha too scored a ton.(AP)

It wasn’t as if the pitch had suddenly become easy for batting. In the over before lunch, Saha was struck on the elbow by a delivery he was looking to leave. An hour before that, Miguel Cummins got the ball to stay low, a delivery that agonisingly went past Saha’s off-stump. Two deliveries later, Cummins had Saha hopping with a ball that almost threatened to knock off his head.

Resorting to counterattacks is normal reaction in these circumstances. But Saha and Ashwin held on. For the first hour of the second day they just allowed balls to pass by, scoring 21 runs in 13 overs. West Indies too were happy to bide their time, packing one side and hitting the fifth stump line, hoping an edge would come their way. Nothing did. India did on the second day what they should have done on the first. Saha was painstakingly slow again, once needing 22 deliveries to get his first runs through a boundary. Once he surpassed his previous Test best of 60, he started playing more freely.

Ashwin, on the other hand, had taken his patience to a different level when he waited for 15 balls to move from 99 to 100. He completed it in grand style though, lifting Roston Chase over mid-on for a huge six. To give a measure of Ashwin’s patience, he scored just one boundary before that the entire morning --- a cut through gully that took him to 99. Just before that Ashwin had given a chance, flicking Chase towards Leon Johnson at short-leg, but he couldn’t hold on to it. That summed up the only three memorable instances in a largely subdued but effective innings played by Ashwin.

Saha however owned the hour before lunch. Creaming two boundaries off Cummins in an over was the first indication of how he was ready to attack West Indies. Surprisingly though, the hosts allowed Saha to grow in his confidence. Suddenly he had moved from 60 to 80 in just 25 deliveries. By the time he reached his maiden Test hundred, the sixth wicket partnership had already crossed 200 and India, for the first time in the Test, looked good to get 400.