India fell short of the target by one run at the Wankhede but their game against West Indies ended in a draw.
Chasing 243 for a win, India needed two runs off the last ball with a couple of wickets remaining but R Ashwin was run-out going for the second run to leave the game drawn.
Despite the early wicket of Gautam Gambhir (12), Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid looked comfortable till the time they remained on the crease. Sehwag’s 60 was a typically brazen knock and came off only 65 balls while Dravid scored 33.
Unfortunately for India, Sehwag threw it away by playing one of the most audacious strokes one can expect in a Test match. It was a reverse-sweep that went to fine-leg instead of the third-man and Darren Sammy held on to a sitter.
Sachin Tendulkar (3) missed out again and when Dravid was dismissed by Marlon Samuels, India looked to be in trouble at 113/4.
VVS Laxman and Virat Kohli stemmed the flow of these dismissals with a 52-run stand, but when Laxman and MS Dhoni fell within 24 runs of each other, West Indies were in with a sniff. At this stage, India not only needed to preserve the wickets but also needed to score at four runs per over to win the match. On a slowing pitch, this was expected to be a difficult ask.
Kohli (63) got the Indians closer to a win, but with 19 required for a win, he was lulled into the cutting the ball to the point fielder. It was a break in concentration brought about by some time-wasting tactics by the West Indies that got them the wicket.
With two lower-order batsmen remaining, Ishant Sharma and R Ashwin, remaining, India still needed 19 to win the game. Ishant began well by cover-driving his first ball to the fence but after offering some chances with their frenetic running, Rampaul had the better of the number nine batsman.
India needed three runs off the last over with two wickets standing, Varun Aaron got only a single off the fourth ball. Ashwin got the strike and patted down the fifth ball of the over before getting just one off the last one.
Earlier, West Indies gave up on a golden chance to build up a substantial lead in their second innings, when they capitulated to 134 all out.
At one stage, the tourists were 91 for the loss of two wickets but Pragyan Ojha and R Ashwin combined to pick up eight wickets between them today. Both got four each as West Indies seemed to have pressed the self-destruction button they had also done in the first Test match.
In this case, they had a lead of 108 from the first innings and a score of 200 would have been sufficient to at least draw the game. Instead, a combination of good bowling, a sudden juicing up of the pitch and shoddy batting allowed India to come back into the game.
