Rocked early by the Indian strikes, the West Indies fought hard for survival through the experienced Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Darren Bravo.
The left-handed duo was proving a road-block as India sought to make history at the Kensington Oval.
The West Indies was 96 for three in its second innings after 38 overs. A bold declaration by M.S. Dhoni opened up the second Digicel Test on the final day.
India has lost seven of its eight previous Tests at this famous venue. The West Indies was set a target of 281 in a minimum of 83 overs after India had declared its second innings at 269 for six, 66 minutes after the start of play on Saturday. For the second time in the match, V.V.S. Laxman (87) missed a hundred.
The surface still offered bounce and movement off the seam for the pacemen. But then, considering he was bowling at two left-handers, senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was unable to beat the batsmen with turn.
Impressive Ishant
The impressive Ishant seamed the ball in, and straightened the odd one from a testing off-stump line. And the bounce he extracted added cutting edge to his bowling. He gave a torrid time to opener Lendl Simmons before the opener, his feet movement tentative, attempted to drive one outside the off-stump. Rolling back the years, Dravid in the slip cordon came up with a fine catch.
Then, Praveen Kumar's deceptive short-pitched delivery came into Ramnaresh Sarwan. The seriously out-of-form experienced batsman attempted to force the delivery off the back-foot — the shot selection was faulty — and ended up nicking to Suresh Raina at third slip.
Outsmarted
Adrian Barath (27) was outsmarted by Ishant who followed a mean just short of a length leg-cutter with the one that was fuller and closer to the off-stump. Barath, caught at the crease, came up with a limp drive and the edge was smartly gobbled up by Raina at third slip. The young Barath has shot-making ability but needs to comprehend the different situations.
Ishant has bowled superbly in this Test. While speed and bounce remain his strengths, he has bowled in the right channels and mixed his length. He has worked on his bowling. The lanky paceman's right elbow does not open out now as he loads up and consequently his wrist is straighter at the point of release. An upright wrist position has been critical to Ishant's successes in this series. He has also harnessed the angles well and sent down a probing spell to Bravo from round-the-wicket.
Stiff resistance
The left-handed Bravo does have a tendency to walk across the crease, exposing his leg-stump in the process. However, Bravo and Chanderpaul offered stiff resistance.
Once again, Chanderpaul's two-eyed stance allowed him to have a clear look at deliveries on or outside the off-stump. With the confidence and the ability to leave at the last moment, the left-hander frustrated the bowlers.
Bravo applied himself but came up with some typically stylish strokes off paceman Abhinamyu Mithun. The southpaw off-drove, glanced, cover-drove and square-cut Mithun for boundaries.
In the morning, the mercurial Fidel Edwards operated with pace and precision — he stuck to an off-stump line — to scalp five.
He prised out Kohli — Edwards bombarded Kohli with short-pitched deliveries on day four — with a fuller length ball outside the off-stump.
And Laxman was done in by a short-of-a-good-length delivery from Edwards; the batsman played away from the body to be held at second slip. Dhoni, attempting to clear the off-side field, holed out to mid-off.
Dexterous wrists
The skilful Laxman, who brought up his second half-century of the match, accumulated runs in a manner that was smooth and unhurried. Once again, he brought his dexterous wrists into play.
He drove with the full face of the bat and put away the deliveries lacking in length with the pull shot. And his flicks raced to the fence. He was fortunate though on 69 when seamer Darren Sammy floored a return catch late on day four.
And Rahul Dravid batted well for his 55 before attempting to cut a short-pitched ball that was slanted in from Edwards.
For most part, the organised Dravid defended with customary tightness and collected runs with deft placements.
Scoreboard
India — 1st innings: 201.
West Indies — 1st innings: 190.
India — 2nd innings: A. Mukund c Baugh b Edwards 48 (81b, 6x4), M. Vijay c Baugh b Rampaul 3 (21b), R. Dravid c Sarwan b Edwards 55 (171b, 3x4), V.V.S. Laxman c Sammy b Edwards 87 (188b, 8x4), V. Kohli c Sammy b Edwards 27 (107b, 1x4, 1x6), S. Raina (not out) 12 (30b, 1x4), M.S. Dhoni c Chanderpaul b Edwards 5 (14b), Harbhajan (not out) 6 (8b, 1x4); Extras (b-4, lb-9, w-5, nb-8) 26; Total (for six wkts. decl in 102 overs) 269.
Fall of wickets: 1-26 (Vijay), 2-89 (Mukund), 3-154 (Dravid), 4-232 (Kohli), 5-247 (Laxman), 6-253 (Dhoni)
West Indies bowling: Edwards 23-4-76-5, Rampaul 28-6-72-1, Sammy 24-8-45-0, Bishoo 27-4-63-0.
West Indies — 2nd innings: A. Barath (batting) 23 (58b, 3x4, 1x6), L. Simmons c Dravid b Ishant 14 (12b 3x4), R. Sarwan c Raina b Praveen 8 (8b,1 x4), D. Bravo (batting) 36 (89b, 6x4); S. Chanderpaul (batting) 9 (56b); Extras (lb-1, nb-1) 2; Total (for three wkts. in 38 overs) 96.
Fall of wickets: 1-18 (Simmons), 2-27 (Sarwan).
India bowling: Praveen 13-6-26-1, Ishant 10-2-28-2, Mithun 9-1-32-0, Harbhajan 6-1-9-0.
