Team India holds on to comfortable draw against West Indies

Basseterre, St Kitts, June 27 (UNI) Half-centuries by skipper Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer and VVS Laxman steered India to a comfortable draw as they made 298 for four against West Indies after being set a target of 392 on the fifth and final day of the third Test here.

The four-match series remains locked at 0-0 after three matches.

Chasing a target of 392 to win in the last innings, India were 298 for four at stumps on the fifth day. West Indies made 581 in the first innings and India, in reply, fell short of the follow on mark by 20 runs as they were all out for 362.

West Indies skipper Brian Lara, however, did not impose the follow on and chose to bat again and declared at 172 for six in the second innings.

It was an exciting first session in which 168 runs were scored.

From their overnight score of 113 run for four wickets, West Indies batted for another eight overs in the day and added 59 runs.

Daren Ganga remained not out on 66 runs off 75 balls that included six hits to the fence. Marlon Samuels also made a quick 20 to set a challenging target.

Team India coach Greg Chappell had hinted rather than play for a draw the visitors would go for the chase.

Sehwag and Jaffer began in right earnest. Jaffer has been in good form in the series and played with ease rotating the strike. But it was Sehwag who lived a charmed life and yet found enough boundaries to send Lara to the lunch table with some ceases on his forehead.

The Najafgarh lad was let off twice in the innings. First in the fourth over as he edged Jerome Taylor to slips but Chris Gayle dropped an easy chance. Seeing that Sehwag was going for the target, Lara took more protection on the off side. He also set an interesting field position, putting a man each at short cover and short extra cover to latch on to anything that Sehwag played in the air.

Sehwag has a tendency to play uppishly in the cover region and Lara's ploy almost succeeded when on 56 Viru hit Dwayne Bravo in the air. But Ramnaresh Sarwan at short extra cover couldn't catch hold of the powerful drive and Sehwag was let off once again.

In between these two chances, Sehwag flourished and regularly pierced a strongly guarded off side boundary. He scored 65 runs in 74 balls with eight fours by lunch. Jaffer was batting on 35 off 83 deliveries.

West Indies struck the first ball after lunch to remove Sehwag leg before to Corey Collymore. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid batted the rest of the session without losing their wickets as one more Test headed for a draw.

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