Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar inched closer to his much-awaited 100th international century with an unbeaten 67 as India gave a strong reply to the huge West Indian total of 590 on day three of the third and final Test here on Thursday.
At stumps, the home team were 281 for 3 in 80 overs – 110 runs short of saving the follow-on and were 309 runs adrift of the tourists’ massive tally on a wicket that was playing true but showing some signs of wear and tear.
The unbeaten batsman accompanying Tendulkar, who has faced 133 balls in his three-hour stay and struck a six and five fours and was 33 short of his landmark century, was V V S Laxman (32 in 53 balls with 3 fours) and the duo’s unbroken fourth-wicket partnership has yielded 57 runs.
Play was called off four overs early because of bad light and the visitors can take the second new ball right after it commences on Friday.
India lost the wicket of opener Gautam Gambhir, who made 55 in 99 balls with eight fours, in the second session after the dismissal of his opening partner Virender Sehwag (37 in 50 balls with a six and three fours) in the pre-lunch period after the duo had put on a brisk 67 runs in 14.3 overs.
Later, the hosts lost Rahul Dravid after the batting mainstay made a superb 82 off 149 balls in 195 minutes with 11 hits to the fence, his 62nd half century in 160th Test. He also crossed 13,000 Test runs and scored more than 1000 runs in this calendar year.
All the three wickets were of batsmen’s errors. Sehwag stretched forward to drive rival captain Sammy and left a gap between bat and ball to be bowled for the third time by the accurate seamer.
Gambhir top-edged a pull off a short ball from Ravi Rampaul going over his head to rival skipper Carlton Baugh and Dravid tried to cut a ball by leaning back one ball after he drove Samuels handsomely past extra cover for a four.
Dravid’s dismissal in the 61st over post tea brought Tendulkar and Laxman together and the duo batted diligently to carry the score past 250.
Tendulkar, who was mostly content in getting runs off nudges after once slashing a short ball from Fidel Edwards for a stunning six over third man, was lucky not to have been dismissed by his series nemesis Devendra Bishoo after compiling his career’s 63rd half ton in his 180th Test appearance. (PTI)