India get the lead of 73 on the 2nd day of the 1st test match againgt west indies

On a Kingston track that remained a challenge for the batsmen, debutant Praveen Kumar nipped out three wickets before lunch to leave India hoping for a first-innings lead despite their seemingly modest total. Adrian Barath resisted with a half-century as the ball continued to swerve around, and bounce alarmingly, but the rest of the top order contributed little on the second morning as West Indies stumbled to 119 for 5.

If West Indies had any doubts about the difficulty of the task ahead, they were given an early pointer by Ishant Sharma, who removed Ramnaresh Sarwan with his first ball of the day. In the second over of the morning, Ishant got one to duck in towards Sarwan whose late and half-hearted defence was beaten and he was lbw for 3.

With Harbhajan Singh getting the ball to spin and bounce, more early wickets looked likely but two of the West Indies' emerging batting stars - Barath and Darren Bravo - defied the bowling for over an hour. Initially the runs weren't easily available as Ishant cranked up the pace, but Barath broke free with a bunch of boundaries. Bravo too seemed to settle in, with an impressive on-the-up cover drive off Ishant, but followed it up with two close shaves in the same over: Suresh Raina dropped a dying edge at third slip, and the next delivery reared up to nearly take the edge through to MS Dhoni.

The pair survived some more close calls, and with the first hour of the day negotiated, Barath decided to open out. Amit Mishra, the most impressive Indian bowler in the one-dayers, was greeted with a loft over long-on to bring up Barath's impressive half-century, and the next delivery was launched into the stands in the same direction.

The change of ends for Praveen, though, transformed the session. In his first over from the Michael Holding end, he produced the ball of the morning - slanting in towards off before bouncing and jagging away, forcing Barath to play, and nick to the keeper. For a bowler who has had a long wait to make the Test grade, it was a wicket to savour.

That was only the start of a spell in which he bagged three wickets in 14 deliveries. The other settled batsman, Bravo, was the next to go, with the offstump line and the movement again resulting in a catch behind. West Indies still had two of their most adhesive batsmen at the crease, but Praveen separated them with a straight delivery to Brendan Nash, that took the leading edge to slips.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was left with the responsibility of shielding and guiding the lower order if West Indies are to make it near India's first-innings total.