India emerged the clear winner even though West Indies showed glimpses of class via sustained fight back during the later part of the ODI series and also during the 3rd Test. Rain played spoil sport for most part of the Test series. But for the rain, India could have easily won the Test series 3-0. A substantial period of time was lost during both the second and the final tests.
Ishant who was discarded for the previous tours showed every one what he is capable of by bagging the man of the series award. Rahul Dravid and VVS Lakshman showed their class once again by playing some important innings.
Abhinav excelled on two occassions in this series and going by the manner in which he has scored runs in the Indian domestic circuit , he must be given more chances.
There were some spirited batting and bowling performances by the West Indies as well. Special mention to Chanderpaul, Bravo and the debutant Kirk Edwards who scored a century.
The series was evenly contested even though India did not send a full strength team. The absence of Gambhir, Sehwag, Zaheer Khan , Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh did not deter a new inexperienced Indian team from finishing the tour as well deserved victors.
Some of the disappointments of the tour were Sarwans’and Murali Vijays’ repeated batting failures. The failures saw Sarwan being dropped from the team , but it was very surprising to see that neither Parthiv Patel or Badrinath were given a chance in place of Vijay and Kohli.
Mention must be made of Raina who played some short but very important innings. There were 3 centuries recorded and the whole series was a very low scoring affair. The cause of low scores need not be only attributed to the pitch. The low scores may have been caused because of the absense of batsmen such as Sehwag and Tendulkar who play well on any kind of pitch.
The series also saw Harbhajan Singh becoming only the 11th bowler to reach 400 wickets. According to the Spin king Murali, Harbhajan will probably go on to break his record of 800 wickets if he plays for another 60 tests. Devendra Bishoos bowling was superb and the manner in which the other bowlers Rampaul, Sammy and Edwards bowled showed how spirited and disciplined these bowlers are. These bowlers do not have any world records, but they do have a lot of class.
The late resurgance showed by the West Indies in the ODI series was in vain. They should have won the first few games. The ODI series was characterised by good batting from Rohit and Kohli. Kohli missed a chance of scoring his maiden ODI century on an overseas tour.
All in Well played to both the teams ..
