Bridgetown is West Indies's main fortress, and India's nightmare. Of 37 Tests at the Kensington Oval, West Indies have won 19 and lost only three. Two of those defeats came against England and Australia in successive seasons starting in 1993-94. Before that West Indies had not lost here for 59 years. India, on the other hand, have lost six of the seven Tests they've played here - their best result was a draw in 1970-71. The only positive result in the last four matches came in one of the most memorable Tests of the last 20 years, when Brian Lara laced an unbeaten 153 to lead West Indies to a famous one-wicket victory over Australia. Before that, there were 16 positive results in a row, with West Indies winning 14. In the last 20 Tests at Bridgetown the team winning the toss has elected to bat only three times. It's easy to see why: two of those ended in defeat, the other a draw. In fact, a team that has won the toss and batted has not won a match here since West Indies did it in 1953-54 ... that was 32 games ago. The innings-by-innings runs-per-wicket average here is as follows: 35.2 (first innings of match), 36.3 (second), 33.5 (third) and 28.3 (fourth). India's batsmen have struggled on the bouncy track here. Sunil Gavaskar averaged 70.20 in the West Indies, with seven centuries in 13
Tests; but his three Tests at Barbados brought him only 177 runs
at 35.40. Gavaskar's Mumbai colleague Dilip Vengsarkar fared even worse - 47 runs in two Tests at 11.75. Dilip Sardesai (265 runs in two Tests at 66.25) and Mohinder Amarnath (222 runs at 55.5) were more successful here. Sardesai's 150 in 1970-71 remains the highest score by an Indian at Bridgetown. West Indies' fast bowlers have enjoyed bowling on this track, especially against the Indians. In all, they have taken 467 wickets at 27.97; against India, 92 wickets have come at 23.66. India's seamers have taken 42 wickets at 33.80, while spin has accounted for 48 wickets at a high 44.52. Surprisingly, the best bowling figures here belong to a spinner. Lance Gibbs returned the astonishing analysis of 53.3-37-38-8 in 1961-62, a performance that is top of the Wisden 100 for West Indies-India Tests. Gibbs's haul included a spell of 8 for 6. Curtly Ambrose came close to breaking that record when he took 8 for 45 against England in 1989-90. The best figures by an Indian are Dattu Phadkar's 5 for 64 in 1952-53; the only other Indians to take five-fors are pacemen Venkatesh Prasad (5 for 82) and Abey Kuruvilla (5 for 68), both in India's last Test here in 1996-97. India would be itching to wipe out memories of that 1996-97 Test. Chasing only 120 for victory, they were bundled out for 81. VVS Laxman top-scored with 19 and was the only player to reach double figures, as Rahul Dravid (2), Sachin Tendulkar (4) and Sourav Ganguly (8) all fell cheaply. That remains the lowest total by any side here. It is also the lowest total in West Indies-India Tests anywhere in the Caribbean. S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com India; Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.
