29 Nov / 2011West Indies in India, 2011. Test Series Analysis

India-West Indies analysis  

India’s third consecutive (fourth successive) series win against West Indies, & West Indies are the third nation that India have won successive series against, before this, India defeated England in successive series(1971-1972) & then in early part of  1993 when they trounced Sri Lanka(Jan) first at home and then in Sri Lanka (July).  

At end of this series, Indian batsmen have scored 77 centuries against West Indies, & 101 was against India for West Indies batsmen.

 Although, this series didn’t start well for their middle order batsmen, nevertheless India maintained excellent run-rate (3.79) thanks to brisk start given by Sehwag –Gambir, who made sure that India were off to a flier, their opening stand avg 58.4 in this series, allowing their strong yet slow-middle order, to play with more freedom. The Delhi Test was the perfect sample of how their batsmen would play this series. 

Dhoni”s suggestion on producing spinner’s track in India must have been influenced from No. of L B W & Bowled dismissals his new spin pair picked in this series. Both Ojha/Ashwin picked 14 L B W and 6 Bowled wickets, and in all there were 29 dismissals (16 L BW + 13 Bowled). 

 India’s Performance

West Indies performance 

For the first time in some years, West Indies bowlers failed to pick big wicket haul, (4 or more) in an inning.  In this series, the best bowling figure/inning came from their captain D Sammy (3/35).

Since 2007, Darren Sammy has been the most prolific bowler for West Indies. Apart from Fidel Edwards no bowler has picked more 4wickets haul than Sammy.

Edwards on the other hand had a very poor series, surprisingly with his slinging-action he could only get one L B W & Bowled dismissals(Sammy had 5 Bowled dismissals). Irrespective of where he bowled from (over the wicket, or around the wicket), or to whom (Right hand batsmen or Left hand batsmen) his radar was consistently down the leg side.

Darren Bravo’s 2^nd century at Eden Gardens was 100^th  century for West Indies against India in Test history.

He was the most prolific run scorer from either side. His tally of 404runs helped West Indies produce 47.2% of Team Runs in this series(Role-play). Role-play : 861Runs were scored by the West Indies team while he was batting, it is also the most by an player from either side. Apart from Bravo, K Edwards & K Brathwaite contributed immensely for West Indies, although their tally of runs were not much to talk about, yet, it’s runs scored in “Role-play”  produced large score for West Indies.

Explanation of primary indices used in these tables

Explanation of secondary indices
A – < 10: Low score dismissals (Bowler’s table).
B – L B W (Bowler’s table) : No. of L B W dismissals for bowlers
C – BOWLED (Bowler’s table) : No. of Bowled dismissals for bowlers.
D – Role-play : Batsmen’s (Begin Score)- (End score) = Role-Play