Windies seeking miracle to save Test

Ex­em­plary seam­er Ke­mar Roach nar­row missed out on a hat-trick but be­lea­guered West In­dies were left need­ing a vir­tu­al mir­a­cle dur­ing Mon­day’s penul­ti­mate day to es­cape an­oth­er heavy de­feat to In­dia, in the fi­nal Test at Sabi­na Park.

Set a mam­moth 468 for vic­to­ry, the home side lost both open­ers Kraigg Brath­waite (3) and John Camp­bell (16) cheap­ly to stum­ble to the close of Sun­day’s third day on 45 for two, still re­quir­ing a fur­ther 423 runs for vic­to­ry.

West In­dies’ high­est suc­cess­ful run chase in Tests is 418, achieved 16 years ago in An­tigua against Aus­tralia.

Much will de­pend on ex­pe­ri­enced left-han­der Dar­ren Bra­vo who was un­beat­en on 18, while Shamarh Brooks, in on­ly his sec­ond Test, was not out on four.

In­dia had ear­li­er de­clared their sec­ond in­nings on 168 for four, thanks to half-cen­turies from Ajinkya Ra­hane (64 not out) and Hanu­ma Vi­hari (53 not out), the pair post­ing 111 in an un­bro­ken fifth-wick­et stand to snuff the fight out of West In­dies.

Ra­hane struck eight fours and a six off 109 de­liv­er­ies while Vi­hari, who notched his maid­en hun­dred in the first in­nings, count­ed eight fours in a 76-ball knock.