WI bowls out India for 200 in the 1st innings

Kingston, Jamaica, July 1 (UNI) West Indies put India on the back-foot by bowling out the Indians for 200 in the first innings of the fourth test being played here at the Sabina Park.

On a seam friendly wicket and some hostile bowling the much revered Indian batting line-up crumbled to gift West Indies advantage after Indian skipper Rahul Dravid won the toss and chose to bat.

A fighting 81 from Rahul Dravid and a gritty 45 from Anil Kumble saved India the blushes of getting out to a real paltry score.

Taylor took his first five wicket haul and was ably assisted by Collymore who took two wickets for 17. bowling 11 maidens in 19 overs.

On a Sabina Park pitch that has traditionally assisted fast bowling, Rahul Dravid chose to go with a combination of 2 pacers and 2 spinners.

Rahul hopes the pitch to assist slow turn on the last two days and his spin-twin then gets into the act. He did the right thing in winning the toss and deciding to bat first, but the script just went haywire from there.

India lost their top order barring skipper Dravid one hour into lunch.

After being reduced to 91 for 6, Dravid found an able ally in Anil Kumble.

Kumble used all his experience to ward off the West Indies attack and also played some beautiful cuts and drives to keep the score board ticking.

Kumble was dismissed one hour after tea clean bowled by Bravo.

He stayed at the wicket for 101 balls and hit 7 fours in his knock of 45. Kumble added 93 runs for seventh wicket with Dravid.

Rahul Dravid also departed after Kumble's loss, getting a thin edge off Collymore for 81. It was a captain's knock from the skipper who batted for almost 6 hours and 215 balls for his 81.

If Rahul had added only 35 runs in the first two sessions, he was more fluent in the last session adding 46 runs before he got out.

Taylor took the wickets of Sreesanth and Munaf Patel to complete his first five wickets haul in Test cricket.

Earlier, India made a disastrous start losing two quick wickets in the first four overs.

India could have been much worse off if all the catches that the batsmen offered were taken. Laxman was let off twice in the slips cordon as the West Indies pacers toiled hard on a helpful wicket.

Sehwag tried to play a rising delivery on his ribs from Pedro Collins to the on side but only managed to lob an easy catch to Ramnaresh Sarwan at forward short leg. Sehwag went for duck and India was 1 for 1.

VVS Laxman survive a scare next ball when his edge just fell short of Gayle at first slips.

Jerome Taylor bowled an express delivery that nipped back in and shattered the stumps of Jaffer to leave India tottering at 3 for 2.

The first few overs here at the Sabina Park have provided good bounce and assistance to pacers. In an eventful first few over, Sarwan at forward short leg was hit by a powerful on drive from Laxman and had to be taken off the field.

Sarwan was hit badly below knee and didn't came back to field in the first session.

Laxman was dropped once more in the 16th over by Lara off Collymore. Laxman survived the chance on his personal score of 5.

Dravid and Laxman completely dropped anchors trying to steer India out of troubled waters. There was some moisture beneath the pitch surface that came up in the morning helping the West Indies pacers.

All the four bowlers were able to extract purchase from the surface and made scoring extremely difficult for the Indians.

Dravid and Laxman showed extra caution as 12 overs before lunch were bowled maiden.

Such was the slowness of Indian scoring that only 8 runs were scored in the first hour.

West Indies bowlers continued to have the strangle-hold over Indian batsmen prising out four more wickets in the session after lunch.

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