Angry crowd pelts batsmen as third test drawn

Press, 5 January 1979, Page 18

Angry crowd pelts batsmen as third test drawn

NZPA-Reuter Calcutta The West Indies scraped to a desperate draw against India in the third, test when play was halted in the sec-ond-last over of the day after they had lost nine wickets early yesterday morning (N.Z. time). The last two West Indies batsmen ran off the field in a hail of oranges thrown from the stands and part of the huge Eden Gardens crowd demonstrated, angrily outside their dressingroom for more than an hour after the match ended. India was unlucky not to win a match it had dominated throughout the last two days. It made a valiant effort, ' snapping up five wickets in the last session, four of them in the last hour when the Indian captain. Sunil Gavaskar gambled by taking the new ball in the second of the mandatory 20 overs. The move almost won India the match when the medium-paced bowler Karsan Ghavri, crashed through

the nervous West Indians, taking two wickets with the last two balls of his second over.

The West Indian vice-cap-tain, Vanburn Holder, survived the hat-trick but was clean-bowled by Ghavri two overs later.

India lost its chance of winning the match when Vishwanath, at first slip, dropped a straight-forward chance off Malcolm Marshall before he had scored in the twelfth mandatory over. It had to wait four more overs for his wicket, when Bishen Bedi had him out lbw. It was India’s last success and bad light halted play with an over and five balls remaining.

The West Indians staggered out of the match at 197 for nine. Gavaskar had set them a total of 335 to win, declaring 40 minutes before stumps on the fourth day at 361 for one.

The first two tests, at Bombay and Bangalore, were also drawn.

Kallicharran complained after the match that the um-

piring had been bad and partial towards India. He described his team as “a bunch ot fighters." The former Indian captain, Bishen Bedi, has been dropped from the Indian team for the fourth test against the West Indies, starting in Madras on January 12. The selectors have now dispensed with three members of India’s famous spin quartet of Bedi, Prasanna, Venkataraghavan and Chandrasekhar.

The only survivor of the four is Venkataraghavan, aged 33, who turned in an impressive performance at Calcutta, taking four for 55 and three for 47 in long accurate spells of off-spin bowling.

Bedi, aged 32, who was dropped as captain at the start of the six-test series against the ; West Indies, took only one for 59 and one for 32 in the two innings. But he is India’s leading wicket-taker of all time, with a total of 263 wickets >in 65 tests.

The Indian squad is: S. M. Gavaskar, S. Venkataraghavan, C. P. S. Chauhan, G. R. Vishwanath, D. B. Venegsarkar, S. H. Kirmani, K. D. Ghavri, Kapil Dev, Dhiraj Pasana, Yashpal Sharma, Bharat Reddy, A. D. Gaekwad and Narashimha Rao. INDIA First innings 300 Second innings 361/1 decl WEST INDIES First innings 327 Second innings S. F. A. Bacchus c and b Ghavri 20 .0. A. Murray st Kirmani b Venkat 66 H. L. Gomes b Venkat .. 5 A. I. Kallicharran c Vishwanath b Narashimha Rao .. 46 S. Shivnaraine not out .. 36 D. R. Parry c Gavaskar b Venkat .. 0 A. B. Williairis b Ghavri .. 11 N. Phillip lbw b Ghavri .. 0 V. A. Holderl b Ghavri .. 4 M. D. Marshall lbw b Bedi .. 1 S. T. Clarke jiot out .. 0! Extras 81 Total for 9 wkts .. 197 Fa 11.—35, 45, 133, 143, 145, 164, 164, 183, 197. Bowling.—Kapil Dev, 13, 6, 21, 0; Ghavri 23, 8, 46, 4; Venkataraghavan 30, 13, 47, 3; Bedi, 22, 14, 32, 1; Narashimha Rao, >17.1, 6, 43, 1.