This is a timely warning to the players in Test cricket that a reputation will not do. Wickets must also be got. On the morning of the fourth day, India awoke to find that they had a very good idea of having matters their own way, but it met with the shock, to their great surprise, of being told that it was a morass. It was wondered how the side that had been bettered before lunch might have been able to make one of the best attacks in the world rethink everything that had occurred after tea.
From Predicted Rout to Prolonged Resistance
To put this in context, this match was never meant to be close. India had hammered the first Test and seemed well on their way to a clean sweep. Under the temporary captaincy of Roston Chase, however, West Indies found an unexpected resilience. Campbell and Hope’s 177-run partnership, the biggest between any two West Indian batsmen this year, turned what was supposed to be a customary Indian victory into a five-day grind. Not even a slow Delhi pitch, offering little turn or seam, could explain how Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav all toiled in vain for 50 overs. Somewhere between fatigue and familiarity, India met with a resistance that seemed enjoyably old-fashioned.
When Discipline Outlasted Firepower
India was the first country to give tactical surprises, throwing the whole dollop of angle switches, slow ball goings on, and practice of patience, at the two West Indies. But Bumrah’s ingenuity and Siraj’s hit-it-on-the-deck hostility met a firm wall of redoubtable caution. Campbell, who had already received blame for throwing his wicket away cheaply, changed his method of play into that of a master of attrition. Hope, finding himself red ballwise after years of ODI experience, began to find the rhythm of time and place in stillness.
Belief in the Dressing Room, Calm in the Middle
It was not tactical but emotional. It was redemption for a side that had been treated roughly in Ahmedabad and was sewn together in sweat. There was historic significance, too, in the form of visitors to the dressing room in Viv Richards, Brian Lara, and Richie Richardson. From Campbell, a six to bring him to his first hundred was not bravado but rather a symbolic thrust at the theme of decay. Hope, the silent workman, was the epitome of the tranquil self-stability associated with the golden days of West Indian cricket. But even the lower order in Justin Greaves and Jayden Seales would not collapse easily, scratching out a dogged 79 for the last wicket that tested India’s fitness and grit rather than their skill.
Numbers That Redefine Resilience
For a side averaging just 206 in their previous five Tests against India, batting for 100 overs in an innings was enormous progress. For Campbell (103, 240 balls) and Hope (107, 212 balls), the runs were not just runs but a statement. They added to the company’s 295 balls – close to half the total number of balls bowled in the match – and carried the Test into its fifth but first in six matches between these teams. Statistically, the West Indies’ run-rate (2.4) looks old-fashioned, but in a form of the game that is gasping for that sort of patience, it was poetry in perseverance.
When History Whispers, Teams Listen
West Indian resilience is cyclical; it comes when least expected. The ghosts of Barbados 1997, where India sank for 81 while chasing 120, rustled round the stadium when Campbell suggested a “who knows?” conclusion. Although history didn’t repeat itself, history certainly did. The struggle called to many minds the 2016 Headingley win over England, another example of the Caribbean side punching above its weight through discipline rather than flair.
Key Takeaway
When West Indies bat with patience instead of panic, even India’s world-class bowlers must remember there’s no shortcut to a Test win.
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