Windies bowlers fail to impress

If Thursday was a trailer of what India batsmen can expect next week, they should be a happy lot. The display the West Indian frontline put up should not be cause for worry. Somshuvra Laha writes.

If Thursday was a trailer of what India batsmen can expect next week, they should be a happy lot. Despite West Indies captain Darren Sammy’s insistence that they are up to the task of taking 20 wickets, they have just five frontline bowlers apart from the medium-pace of Sammy - fast bowlers Tino Best, Kemar Roach, Sheldon Cotterrell and the spin duo of Shane Shillingford and Veerasammy Permaul to achieve that target.

Coach Ottis Gibson stuck to his promise of keeping Shillingford a surprise package by not naming him in the warm-up match against Uttar Pradesh here but Permaul fizzled out after a decent start.

He topped the list with two wickets, both of right-handed batsmen, but the pounding he received in the last hour undid the good start.

Permaul’s first scalp was Mohammed Kaif who tried a defensive shot but ended up edging to Kieron Powell at forward short-leg. Next, was Arish Alam who tried to cut but the ball bounced and turned to take the top of his stumps.

From then on, the batsmen got a hang of Permaul by looking for the odd arm-ball and latching on to the loose ones that the left-arm spinner often gave away.

The larger picture isn’t encouraging for Permaul or Shillingford. Both are yet to feature in a Test against India and have played a total of 12 matches between them.

The fact that Chris Gayle’s gentle off-spin had to be summoned after just 50 overs doesn’t reflect well on the West Indies bowling resources either.

Cotterrell, a promising pacer yet to make his debut, impressed with his speed but he bowled only five overs in the opening spell, only to return for four more at the end of the day.

Both Cotterrell and Best conceded at more than four per over but Best looked better in trying to mix his deliveries. West Indies can take comfort that at least Best and Permaul came handy down the batting order on Thursday, but that is not what they are here for.

Brief scores: West Indies 466 all out in 103.3 ovs (S Chanderpaul 112, N Deonarine 94, V Permaul 46, T Best 35, Imtiaz Ahmed 5/117) v Uttar Pradesh 206/5 in 53 ovs (Mukul Dagar 42, Parvinder Singh 78 batting, V Permaul 2/61, T Best 1/44, S Cotterrell 1/37, D Sammy 1/33). Match to continue.