India vs West Indies: Batters set the template for visitors after Mohammed Siraj rampage at Queen's Park Oval

After four exciting days of Test cricket despite a few rain interruptions here and there, Day five of the second Test between India and West Indies in Trinidad promises to be an intriguing affair, should the rain stay out of it.

West Indies have never looked as a settled unit themselves despite a few silver linings, but after four days of the second Test, all three results still seem likely but the most likeliest of it all remains a series win for India. Which, they won’t take for granted considering it’s part of the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC cycle).

To put into context, after India declared at 181/2 in their second innings, West Indies were set a target of 365 and find themselves at 76/2.

Mohammed Siraj runs through Windies lineup

West Indies resumed their first innings from an overnight score of 229/5, and possibly, their final hope was Alick Athanaze staying in the middle for as long as possible. However, the Windies never really took off at the start of the day, and only in the fourth delivery Athanaze faced in the day, he was struck LBW by Mukesh Kumar. Not even a DRS review could help Athanaze after HawkEye showed the ball to be clipping leg stump, while having been beaten on the inside edge.

By now, Jason Holder was starting to lose support from the other end. While he collected a boundary at the start of the day, guiding through backward point region, the former captain could not sustain that momentum even more. Facing an outswinging full delivery from Siraj, Holder opted to not let it go and struck his bat out, only to get an edge and eventually let Ishan Kishan complete the catch.

Pace aur swing inki success ka raaz…