Half centuries by Chanderpaul, Samuels pushes WI to 536

Basseterre, St Kitts, June 24 (UNI) West Indies consolidated their commanding position in the third test by reaching 536 for five at lunch on the third day of the third test here.

Overnight unbeaten batsmen Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels both completed their fifties as the West Indies struggled to score at brisk pace.

At lunch, Chanderpaul was batting on 76 and Samuels was giving him company on 69. 116 runs were scored in the first session in which India failed to take any wicket. India adopted defensive bowling and field placements and surprisingly West Indies batsmen didn't show any urgency to accelerate the run rate.

Groundsmen here at the Warner Park did a commendable job to get the out field dry after overnight rain and start the day's play on time. But the pitch was still playing its best for batting as Indian seamers failed to utilise any assistance from early moist conditions.

Though not counted among the elegant batsmen of the times, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been a major thorn in flesh for the Indians, scoring at an average of high seventies against them.

Chanderpaul completed yet another fifty, his 38th and 10th against the Indians.

Chanderpaul batted in his typical fashion by rotating the strike and hitting in odd boundary. Samuels was more aggressive of the two, hitting beautiful straight drives.

Samuels soon joined the party and reached his fifty, becoming the fifth batsman in the innings to do so. Brian Lara was criticised by the local media for not picking local batsman Runako Morton ahead of Samuels. Samuels fifty did no harm to his skipper's decision.

Indian skipper Rahul Dravid adopted a more defensive approach four men patrolling the boundary as India looked to slow down the scoring rate and delay West Indies declaration. Harbhajan Singh, who was mauled badly by Gayle and Ganga early in the innings, adopted a line wide out side the off stump to both Chanderpaul and Samuels.

With protection on the off side, Harbhajan regularly bowled at what would have been sixth or seventh stump and brought the ball in from there.

Chanderpaul and Samuels were not keen to take any chances even at this stage and were happy scoring in singles.

Indian skipper tried Virender Sehwag too from the far end but Sehwag also left no impression on the West Indies batsmen.

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