Stumps West Indies 117 and 45 for 2 (Bravo 18*, Brooks 4*) need 423 to beat India 416 and 168 for 4 dec. (Rahane 64*, Vihari 53*, Roach 3-28)
India ended West Indies' first innings without much fuss, took a 299-run lead, decided to bat again, faltered against Kemar Roach, and still ended the day comfortably ahead of West Indies. Having set the home side 468 to square the series, India dismissed both openers to reduce West Indies to 45 for 2 at stumps.
For the first time in three innings, West Indies' top-order batsmen looked like they were comfortable against India's fast bowlers, although much of that was down to a lack of swing in the evening. Left-handers John Campbell and Darren Bravo nailed the timing on many of their favourite front-foot strokes, scoring rapidly after Kraigg Brathwaite had edged behind off a straightening Ishant Sharma delivery. But shortly after he was dropped at first slip by Hanuma Vihari, Campbell threw his bat at a wide delivery from Mohammed Shami and found Virat Kohli at third slip. West Indies then slowed down for the last five overs of the day, the only notable incident being a bouncer from Bumrah that struck Bravo on the helmet in the last over. Bravo chose to stay on for the last two balls of the day.
Quick scoring was also a feature of the partnership between Vihari and Ajinkya Rahane, who rapidly turned the game after tea, scoring at nearly six per over to add 95 as India declared to put West Indies in for the last hour. They put up a hundred stand in the process, got to individual half-centuries, and finished the series with two fifties and a hundred each.
Unlike the afternoon session, where ball dominated bat, West Indies had little control over the two, who clearly had the declaration in mind. It began with two glorious Vihari on-drives early in the session, followed by both batsmen stepping out to Rahkeem Cornwall and chipping him either side of square leg.
West Indies went on the defensive and bowled spin from both ends. The move almost paid off, with Rahane sweeping one straight to Shannon Gabriel at deep backward square, only for the fast bowler to lose balance and fluff the chance. That over ended with Vihari chopping one to point and Rahane drilling a full toss to the cover boundary.
The move to bowl spin played into India's hands, and might have been a relief in comparison to when they came together at 57 for 4 in the post-lunch session, when West Indies, and Roach in particular, had given them a jolt. The seamer went past Wes Hall's 192 wickets into ninth place overall for West Indies. He also came close to emulating another Wes Hall feat - a Test hat-trick - but missed out by inches.
Not much had changed about Roach's attacking strategy. It was the same length - just full enough to get batsmen forward - and the same line, just outside off, with which he's troubled India all series. Having already pinned Mayank Agarwal deep in the crease and poking across the line before lunch, he persisted with the attack in KL Rahul's corridor after the break.
Rahul once again showed indecisiveness outside off, often finding himself halfway between a guide to third man and a leave. This was a telling feature through his entire innings, which lasted 63 balls and during which he scored only 6 - he added no runs in the 11.1 overs after the break.
His dismissal was built upon that indecisiveness. Roach went stock - wide of the crease, angled into off stump, moving away off the surface. Rahul, in similar fashion to his first-innings dismissal, was caught inside the line and followed the ball with his hands a touch, guiding it straight to wicketkeeper Jahmar Hamilton.
The very next ball, he got one to straighten even more subtly from wide of the crease. Virat Kohli's guard and shuffle across got him well into the off side as he looked to defend on the front foot, but Roach had done just enough to find the edge and get him for a first-ball duck.
For the hat-trick ball, Rahane walked into yet another tricky situation, and with catchers all around him, looked tentative as he got on the back foot to try and poke one into the off side. The resulting inside edge narrowly missed leg stump, as all the leg-side catchers tumbled in despair. It seemed Roach's bad luck, briefly forgotten, had returned.
Earlier in the day, India took just over an hour to end West Indies' innings, with Shami, Ishant and Ravindra Jadeja splitting the last three wickets between them. West Indies were bowled out for 117.
Shami got a sharp, well-directed bouncer up at Cornwall's throat and had him fending. He could only manage to get his gloves on it from that position, a gentle lob for Rahane to hold on to coming in from gully.
Roach, who has also been one of West Indies' most confident batsmen in the series so far, looked it when he came out. He played stylish square drives off both Jasprit Bumrah and Shami, with a neat tuck through midwicket sandwiched in between. At the other end, for almost ten overs, Hamilton added no runs to his overnight score of 2.
He became Ishant's only wicket of the innings. Hamilton's 57-ball 3, an exercise in survival, ended with an outside edge to slip as he went with his trusted forward block. Jadeja extracted prodigious turn in his very first over of the day and soon had Roach slicing one to cover.
With that turn, he activated a potential fourth menacing bowling option for India, and a follow-on wouldn't have been out of the question. But conditions have been humid and sapping fast bowlers all through the match, and that is likely to have influenced Kohli's decision.
