Power at the Oval

To the backdrop of noisy, happy, flag-waving celebrations, the West Indies completed yet another emphatic victory over India at Kensington Oval in the third Cable & Wireless Test yesterday, their seventh in eight Tests between the teams on the ground.

The outcome, settled 25 minutes after lunch on the fourth day, levels the series at 1-1 with two Tests remaining.

It was predictable as early as the first day when India tumbled for the all-out first-innings 102, but it was not finalised in quite the way expected.

That the West Indies were obliged to go in a second time to knock off five runs was due mainly to India's No. 9, Zaheer Khan, who batted with all the carefree abandon of an old-fashioned tailender for a personal best, run-a-ball 46.

Twice he clobbered fast bowler Adam Sanford over the mid-wicket boundary for sixes, twice top-edged fours over the slips that prompted the installation of a fly-slip and drove through the covers and mid-off with more authentic strokes.

Only opener Wasim Jaffer, with his second innings 51, and dogged captain Saurav Ganguly, following his first innings' last-out 48, with 60 not out this time, scored more in the match.

As unusual, and unorthodox, as Zaheer's merry-making was, the West Indies had their own little trick up their sleeve.

As Zaheer swashbuckled and Ganguly kept accumulating runs in an eighth-wicket partnership of 74, Ramnaresh Sarwan was offered the last speculative over before lunch to toss up his leg-spin.

Soon, he was contemplating one of Test cricket's most bizarre hat-tricks.

His first ball got rid of Zaheer, who touched a long-hop to Ridley Jacobs, a signal for the players to head for the Sir Garfield Sobers Pavilion for lunch.

On resumption, Sarwan struck again with his first delivery as Javagal Srinath stabbed a faster straight ball into Chris Gayle's lap at gully.

It was not easy to tell who was more delighted the beaming bowler, his whooping teammates or the noisy and animated crowd, although it wasn't difficult to guess.

Last man Ashish Nehra prevented the hat-trick and the prospect of months of incessant bragging after which Brian Lara, leading the team in the temporary absence of Carl Hooper, was judicious, and courageous, enough to thank Sarwan for his one-over effort and return to his major fast bowler, Dillon, to put a seal on the deal.

It took him two balls. Like Zaheer, Nehra is a left-arm swing fast bowler and right-hand batsman and, copying Zaheer's earlier approach, he swung Dillon high, wide and not so handsome towards mid-on.

Pedro Collins, running ten yards to his right and sighting the ball as it came over his shoulder, collected the catch at third attempt.

A joyous Sunday crowd of around 6 000 had gathered early in confident expectation of a rare West Indian success and were well primed for their celebrations by the time Stuart Williams cut Harbhajan Singh to the Kensington Stand boundary to settle the matter.

They had been in the stands throughout, fluttering the flags of the several cricketing West Indies' nations, and now they poured onto the ground.

The disco boomed out appropriate sounds in the background, a West Indies captain collected the sponsors' winning cheque for the first time at Kensington since Brian Lara did, following his breathtaking unbeaten 153 against Australia three years ago and Dillon took the Man-Of-The-Match award for his eight wickets.

These have been rough times for West Indies cricket so that its passionate public craves any morsel of success.

This was a whole, satisfying meal.

The recovery from the disappointment of the narrow second Test defeat in Port-of-Spain (by 37 runs) reflected an encouraging spirit.

Not everything is right and there remains a lot wrong with the openers, with the tailend and with the inability of all four fast bowlers to be consistent every session.

But the result should be an enormous tonic for the remaining Tests in Antigua, starting on Friday, and Kingston from May 18 to May 22.

It was the West Indies' first triumph in nine Tests, since they defeated Zimbabwe by an innings in Bulwayo last July, and their seventh in eight Tests at Kensington Oval over the Indians, who have never won a match on the ground.

India started the morning at 169 for four, still 123 away from requiring a West Indies second innings, with their batting champion, Sachin Tendulkar, and the reliable Rahul Dravid already dismissed cheaply.

Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman, the last specialist batsmen, carried their hopes of making a fight of it but the left-handed Ganguly was left with only young wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra and the four bowlers when Laxman edged a low catch to Hooper at second slip off Collins 20 minutes into the day. He was 46 when he was undone by Collins.

The preceding scores for wicketkeepers on both sides had been 0, 0, 1 (Junior Murray) and 0 (Jacobs), 0 (Deep Dasgupta) and 0, 2, 1 (Ratra).

Ratra was a couple of inches short of another 0 to add to the list when he edged Collins to fourth slip but he more than tripled the combined keepers' amount until he fell lbw to Dillon, using the second new ball.

In the next over, Cuffy bowled Harbhajan Singh off the inside edge with the second new ball before Zaheer and Sarwan became the two unlikely stars of the finale.