India 58 runs away from 2-0 sweep of West Indies

India wanted to get out of the joint as soon as possible when they enforced the follow-on less than halfway into the match, but 200 continuous overs of bowling on an unyielding pitch later, India will have to come back on the fifth morning to complete the win. Having been set 121 to win, India only briefly tried to finish the match on the fourth evening, ending on 63 for 1.

Signs that it was going to be hard work was apparent when the last two West Indies wickets hung around for 25.2 overs in the first innings, but India disregarded the conditions when asking their bowlers to go back in after having bowled 81.5 overs. India perhaps expected West Indies to roll over, but they dug in: John Campbell brought up his maiden century, Shai Hope scored his first in eight years, and the last wicket added 79 in their second-best partnership of 2025.

That the last wicket didn't give them squeaky bums was down to the second new ball giving them just enough to turn 293 for 4 into 311 for 9. Mohammed Siraj started the West Indies slide with Hope's wicket before Kuldeep Yadav took three in quick time to go with five in the first innings. Just how desperate India were was evident from how they didn't bowl a single over of Nitish Kumar Reddy, whom they want to put in live situations as evidenced in his promotion to No. 5 when India batted.

West Indies began the day 97 behind with eight wickets in hand. The 49-over-old ball offered India nothing on a lifeless track even though they did stick to the task. Campbell, resuming on 87, went to his hundred with a massive slog-swept six. The sweep shot had been his ally throughout the innings, but when he pulled out the reverse for the first time, he missed it comprehensively and was caught in front. This shot was likely a result of Ravindra Jadeja's move to round the wicket, which began to threaten both the edges. One ball before he got out, Campbell had got away with an outside edge too thick for the keeper to catch.

Hope and Roston Chase looked comfortable during their 59-run stand but the second new ball, taken as soon as it became available just after lunch, created just about enough for India. Siraj was the one to create the breakthrough, getting Hope played on off a wobble-seam ball. The wicket took him to the top of wicket-takers' list in Test cricket in 2025.

Kuldeep, having been targeted for 63 runs in 16 overs with the first ball, decided he needed to get even quicker in the air when Tevin Imlach took him down for a four and a six in his first over with the new ball. The length went slightly shorter, and he managed to draw just enough low bounce and pace from the middle of the pitch to get the wickets of Imlach and Chase, the former lbw and the latter caught at short midwicket.

Khary Pierre, who began the resistance in the first innings, played a loose slog early to be caught at mid-off, and Jasprit Bumrah got rid of Jomel Warrican and Anderson Phillip with the lead still 41.

With the ball now soft, the pitch went back to sleep. Justin Greaves didn't even feel the need to shield Jayden Seales. The tired limbs and frustrated minds began to show as the middle session was stretched because West Indies had only one wicket standing. The two played out that extra half hour without any incident. For large periods, India's best spinners, and thus the world's best, bowled at the No. 11 with only one slip and no other catching man.

Greaves and Seales batting for long enough to take them into the territory where they will wistfully wonder what might have happened if they had not collapsed against the second new ball. Seales eventually fell to a confident shot off Bumrah, forced to bowl yet another spell 10 overs into the final session, holing out to deep forward square leg. He had pulled Bumrah for four earlier in the over.

Set 121 to win, with 18 overs and a possible extra half hour left in the day Yashasvi Jaiswal came out trying to finish the match on the fourth evening, but was caught at long-on off Warrican in the second over. India proceeded to bat normally and finish the match on the fifth morning. Unless it was a personal decision that Jaiswal made, he has reason to feel disappointed at India's flimsy commitment to finishing the game on the fourth evening.