The West Indies batsmen were as steady as their bowlers yesterday at the Antigua Recreation Ground on the second day of this first Digicel Test match.
By Garth WattleyChris Gayle (72, 13 fours, one six), Dwayne Bravo 68 (11 fours) and Ramnaresh Sarwan 58 (nine fours) laid the foundation for a total of 318 for six in reply to India's eventual first innings score of 241.
And the unbroken seventh wicket partnership of 36 between Denesh Ramdin and Ian Bradshaw pushed the West Indies lead to 77, worrying for India with four wickets still to be taken.
Windies skipper Brian Lara would have preferred the loss of fewer wickets as he searched for a big first innings advantage. But his Indian counterpart Rahul Dravid would have been the more worried man as he watched as his bowlers fail to follow the lead of their West Indian colleagues on day one.
So after Fidel Edwards bowled Munaf Patel to end the Indian innings yesterday morning, Lara's batsmen got down to business.
Using his clean-shaven bat as though harbouring criminal intent, Gayle made up for the early loss of Daren Ganga, to a debatable lbw decision given by umpire Asad Rauf in favour of Patel, with yet another blazing innings.
In length and quantity, it was nowhere near his massive 318 last year in the Test against South Africa here. Anil Kumble saw to that when he induced a prod from the big leftie which gripped the shoulder of the bat and went to Dravid at first slip.
But before then, Gayle, improvising spectacularly and taking full toll on the width the Indian seamers allowed him, plundered 13 fours and a six which threatened to go into orbit.
It was hit straight and high off Shantha Sreesanth and cleared the Media Centre. Gayle followed that up with a screaming square cut for four from almost his full height.
Sreesanth, chastened by the rough treatment, gave himself a tough talking to as he trudged back to his mark, willing himself to hold it together. He is young in the Test game, only two matches behind him before this one.
And next ball, Gayle showed there was no mercy at the highest level with an upper cut to the third man boundary. That stroke proved a highly effective one for Gayle yesterday and brought him three additional boundaries, one, a quite flamboyant stroke that was a near six. It landed in front of the double decker stand and the celebrating posse around Chickie's Hi Fi.
Gayle went to lunch primed for a half-century on 45 off a mere 50 balls. Sarwan was 19 and the score a solid 81 for one.
The speed of the West Indies progress would have concerned Dravid over lunch. But the folks packed into the eastern bleachers and jumping already to the rhythms of the All Saints Iron Band could not have been more pleased. Their team were continuing to play confident, solid cricket, the West Indian way.
After the break Gayle and Sarwan, content to be the sheet anchor, took their second wicket partnership past the century mark to 119 before Kumble intervened. He had been introduced after the interval for the 20th over. Spin colleague Harbhajan Singh's puzzling omission and the seamers' inability to keep the right length put additional responsibility on him.
But he was not responsible for Lara's short stay.
The West Indies captain received a special ovation from a crowd only too aware of his great record-breaking deeds on this ground and mindful, too, that it was the last time they would be seeing him play here.
He began in a manner to excite hope of another great show with an early square drive for four and a six-pulled off the hapless Sreesanth into the Iron Band section-that was a spectacle itself.
But Lara's best doesn't often come out of such explosive starts. And on 18 (two fours, one six), he gifted his wicket to the tall, bearded Patel, stretching for a drive which he hit to Yuvraj Singh at point.
Sarwan had not yet got to his 50 when Lara departed at 159 for three. But the Windies vice-captain eventually got there in pleasing style with a beautifully-placed on-drive off Kumble that glided through midwicket.
It was a most fitting way also to get to 4,000 runs in Tests.
His proven skill demands that he gets much more in future. Certainly, yesterday, he was due a greater sum than his 58. He had gone to tea on that score, partnered by his former captain, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies total on 182 for three.
But Kumble made an immediate and timely intervention right after the break when he deceived Sarwan first ball with one that went straight on and rendered him an lbw victim.
It was the kind of juncture where the game could have taken a dramatic turn. But it didn't.
Bravo, unbeaten against Indian bowling since the last two one-day games in Trinidad, tapped into the pool of great confidence produced by those match-winning displays.
He remained unbeaten for a further 92 balls yesterday, entertaining thoroughly in that time.
It was here last year against the South Africans that Bravo made that leap in promise and became a Test match century-maker.
Yesterday, he gave a near repeat, and even surpassed his 110 in quality.
He began immediately with three stroked into the covers. And, thereafter, against pace and spin alike, Bravo produced a quite stylish mix of conventional, upper and late cuts, wristy flicks and on-drives. But his straight driving was julie mango sweet.
The very best, played off Patel, was perfectly timed, perfectly straight, perfectly pretty. Its dear companion came off Kumble in a sequence that included two other boundaries in the leg-spinner's first over of a new spell.
So dominant was the dynamic all rounder that he garnered 51 of the 73 runs put on by himself and Chanderpaul for the fifth wicket.
Chanders, always happy to go at his own pace, was not so happy though, when, after spending two hours building himself up to 24, he was caught by wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni cutting at bald-headed Virender Sehwag's part-time off-spin.
It was hard to tell if his disconsolate, disagreeable countenance was a reflection of the decision or the shot.
Coupled with Bravo's subsequent stumping as he drove in vain at the teasing Sehwag at 282, Chanderpaul's dismissal represented recovery for India.
Ramdin and Bradshaw, though, have stalled their progress.
