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Viru's hurricane ton puts India in groove
Skipper Dravid then pitched in to put India on a firm footing in the 2nd Test. Scorecard
Following Virender Sehwag's hurricane knock, skipper Rahul Dravid pitched in to put India on a firm footing in the second Test against West Indies at St Lucia.
At stumps, Rahul Dravid was unbeaten on 95 and Mohammad Kaif was batting on 18. Pedro Collins who grabbed all the four wickets, was clearly the pick of the bowlers for West Indies.
Sehwag's majestic century gave India a blazing start after Dravid elected to bat.
The Nawab of Najafgarh cut loose from the beginning to send the West Indies bowlers on a leather hunt. It was vintage Sehwag all the way before Collins ended his odyssey with a brilliant catch off his own bowling. The opener's magnificent 180 came off just 190 balls and included 20 fours and 2 sixes.
The Delhi batsman was involved in two crucial partnerships that set the tone for India. He combined with Wasim Jaffer for an opening stand of 159 runs and then with skipper Rahul Dravid for a 139-run partnership.
The swashbuckler was in ominous form right from the word go as he reached his half-century with a stunning six off Dwayne Brave from only 33 balls. But he failed to break the Indian record for the fastest hundred by Mohammad Azharuddin off 74 balls.
Wasim Jaffer, the double centurion of the first Test, at the other end was content playing the second fiddle as he batted cautiously for his 43 before he was dismissed by Collins.
Soon after, Laxman too departed without troubling the scoreboard as he was caught behind off the same bowler for a duck.
This brought Dravid to the crease who supported Sehwag aptly with a classy half-century after India lost both Jaffer and Laxman within a difference of two runs.
After yet another valuable partnership between Sehwag and Dravid, Collins struck again to dismiss both Sehwag and Yuvraj in quick succession to give West Indies some respite.
Earlier, India made only one change to the side that played in the first Test at Antigua. After missing the first Test, Irfan Pathan is back in place of injured Sreesanth.
West Indies have dropped spinner Dave Mohammad and brought in Pedro Collins and Jerome Taylor. Fidel Edwards was ruled out of the second Test because of a hamstring injury.
After the drawn first Test in Antigua, both the teams will be looking for a result in St Lucia.
Teams
West Indies : IDR Bradshaw, DJ Bravo, S Chanderpaul, PT Collins, CD Collymore, D Ganga, CH Gayle, BC Lara, D Ramdin, RR Sarwan, JE Taylor
India : MS Dhoni, R Dravid, W Jaffer, M Kaif, A Kumble, VVS Laxman, MM Patel, IK Pathan, V Sehwag, VR Singh, Yuvraj Singh
