Passion

May 12, 2002 | 2230 IST | Updated - May 13, 0345 IST - Rediff.com

Fourth Test, India versus West Indies, Antigua

Courageous Kumble steels his jaw, pushes Windies on the defensive

Faisal Shariff

Day Three

With juice in the wicket for the tweakers, Tendulkar waged a lone battle until Kumble freshened the sultry air with his courageous entry on the ground.

Despite having been declared hors d'combat with a cracked jaw, Kumble, inspired by the turn afforded by the wicket, got team physio Andrew Leipus to swathe his face with bandages and turned up to do duty for India.

With a strapped face that offered a palette of expressions, Kumble bowled his first over writhing in pain every time his front foot landed on the bowling crease. His mates could clearly feel his agony.

Umpire David Shepherd placed an avuncular arm around Kumble at the end of his first over. Leipus kept circling the boundary fence checking on Kumble and strapping him up after every over as Harbhajan Singh watched with concern.

The saga of raw courage soon turned into a fairytale when Kumble in his fourth over pitched one on middle and off and trapped Lara plumb in front. Lara's dismissal seemed to inspire Kumble who ignored his face swelling up.

"This one takes the cake," remarked Leipus who has seen players take the field with injuries before, but never as serious as the one sustained by Kumble. But in his blueprint for winning, the Karnataka leggie counts on fighting harder when the chips are down.

West Indies ended the day at 187/3, having scored 99 runs in the extended third session that saw 39 overs being bowled. Kumble finished with figures of 14-5-29-1.

But Sunday certainly saw him give all those fans watching the game a lot of goose bumps.