Attacking half-centuries by Jermaine Blackwood and Roston Chase frustrated India’s push for victory as the West Indies added 167 runs to be 215 for five in the second innings at lunch on the final day of the second Test yesterday.
Trailing from the first innings by 304 runs, the hosts will go into the afternoon session with the sixth-wicket pair of Chase (70 not out) and Shane Dowrich (33 not out) needing to further extend their resistance with the Indians pressing for the breakthrough in pursuit of victory and a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
Resuming on a sun-drenched last day with the innings in apparent ruins at 48 for four after just 15.5 overs were bowled on a rain-ruined day four, Blackwood and Chase took on all the Indian bowlers, unsettling them via a succession of boundaries as they scored at better than a run-a-minute.
Blackwood could have been caught-and-bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin when on 37 but the bowler pulled his hands out of the way of a fearsome straight drive.
Having blazed a run-a-ball 62 on the first morning of the match, the diminutive right-hander got to 63 off 54 balls with nine fours and two sixes when Ashwin made amends via an excellent catch by Cheteshwar Pujara at forward short-leg.
His partnership with Chase was worth 93 runs at better than five runs per over.
Any hopes the Indians had of scything through the rest of the batting were thwarted though by Dowrich, who also played positively in partnership with his fellow Barbadian.