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ESPNcricinfo staff
November 24, 2011
Darren Sammy has said batsmen tend to get out to him because they underestimate his bowling. He has been West Indies' most-successful bowler on their tour of India so far, with eight wickets in the Test series. On the third day at the Wankhede Stadium, he dismissed Virender Sehwag for the third time in four innings. Sammy said Sehwag looks to attack him which leaves him with the chance of picking up Sehwag's wicket.
"Through the series I have bowled first change, not as quick as other bowlers. After the first Test it seems Sehwag wants to hit me out of the attack," Sammy said. "But I don't mind him playing a few shots because he could present me with an opportunity to get him out. So far, he has done that in three innings.
"I work hard for every wicket. My job in the team is to be the workhorse, bowl lots of overs. I guess the mistake batsmen make is they underestimate me and get relaxed when they face me. It presents an opportunity to slide one through and get a wicket."
Sammy's dismissal of Sehwag was one of only three wickets to fall in the day, leaving India on 281 for 3 in response to West Indies' 590, and the game poised for a draw. Sammy, though, said West Indies were still in with a good chance to win. "A few wickets in the first session tomorrow can change things; there's a lot of time left in the Test match. The pitch seems to be quite good but having scored nearly 600, we can still get a 200 or 150-run lead and come back and set a target."
West Indies could have had another wicket when Sachin Tendulkar was dropped by Carlton Baugh on 38, and Sammy said taking their chances would be important on the fourth day. He said his bowlers could take inspiration from the way R Ashwin and Varun Aaron persisted for India.
"We saw how two of the India bowlers toiled and worked hard for their wickets. We are prepared to do that and hopefully we could get more wickets quicker than the India team did. We have our game plan and we bowled to it. We did create an opportunity to get Tendulkar out but unfortunately we didn't take it."
While Baugh's chance to dismiss Tendulkar should have been a wicket, Ravi Rampaul's dismissal of Gautam Gambhir for 55, perhaps, should not have been one. Gambhir was adjudged caught-behind but replays seemed to suggest he had not nicked the ball. Gambhir, though, said he is happy to play without the DRS since good and bad decisions even themselves out.
"There are times they go in your favour and there are times they don't," he said. "I could say that today I missed DRS but there will be occasions in the future where I will be grateful there is no DRS. The important thing is everything evens out."
Gambhir's half-century was his second of the series but he has failed to convert on the starts. He also had two half-centuries in the recent home ODI series against England but failed to get a hundred. "The important thing is how you are hitting the ball and I have been doing that well," he said. "Even during the one-dayers against England I was not able to convert fifties into hundreds, and that is on my mind. But I have been giving the team good starts."
All the talk going into the fourth day at the Wankhede Stadium is about whether or not Sachin Tendulkar will get his 100th international century but Gambhir pointed out that India still needed to do some work to avoid the follow-on, and that was more critical. "The team is not thinking much about Sachin's 100th hundred but what we require at the moment. West Indies have set a big target and it's important to save the follow-on. If Sachin gets his 100th ton in that course it's good, but we are focused on the team objective."
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