Tame draw beckons in Mumbai after Ashwin ton

Mumbai: Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin joined two illustrious Indians Vinoo Mankad and Polly Umrigar in scoring a hundred and taking five wickets in an innings, to offset the heartbreak of seeing Sachin Tendulkar miss his much-vaunted century of centuries in the third and final cricket Test against the West Indies here Friday.

Ashwin's fluent 103 on the fourth day of the Test carried India to save a possible follow-on and a relative safety in the company of Virat Kohli (52) and the tail. India could cut the deficit to 108 by scoring 482 in their first innings in reply to the West Indies' mammoth 590.

Then there was some excitement as the West Indies lost two quick wickets when they went in to bat a second time, but Kraigg Brathwaite (34) and Darren Bravo (27) saw to it that there was no further damage and took the score to 81 for two - an overall lead of 189 runs by the close of play. Pragyan Ojha grabbed both the wickets to fall, dismissing Adrian Barath (3) and Kirk Edwards (17).

Unless the unresponsive pitch deteriorates unexpectedly, a decisive result is highly unlikely on the fifth day Saturday.

In Image: Indian batsman Ravichandran Ashwin acknowledges the crowd after scoring a century

Text: IANS

Images: AP

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