By Tony Becca - From The Boundary 
Becca
THE West Indies' dream of improving their poor performance away from home since 1996 ended in bitter disappointment yesterday in Chennai when they lost the second Test by eight wickets with a day to spare.
After winning the first Test in Mumbai by an innings and 112 runs, India now boast a winning two-nil lead in the three-match series, and barring a miracle, they should win again in Kolkatta (formerly Calcutta) and make it three-nil.
Remembering that the West Indies have now lost 25 of their last 29 matches away from home - all of them by large margins, that they have won only two - one against England and one against lowly Zimbabwe, and that in the process they failed to even draw a match against Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan again, that would not be surprising.
It would not be surprising for two simple reasons.
The first reason is that apart from playing at home, India, with batsmen like Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman, two pace bowlers like Javagal Srinath and left-hander Zaheer Khan, and two spinners the quality of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, are a better team.
The second reason is that the West Indies no longer know how to win - how to grab opportunities.
Although they were soundly beaten in the end, the West Indies had two good chances to pressure India in Chennai - probably even to snatch victory and level the count at one-one.
The first was on the third day.
After crashing for 167 on the opening day of the Test match, after bowling so well and limiting India to 190 for five at stumps on the second day, the West Indies had a wonderful opportunity to get back into the game before, despite removing the dangerous Laxman early on the third morning, they squandered it with some wayward bowling and allowed India to finish with a commanding lead of 149.
The second was on the fourth day.
After losing Christopher Gayle in the first over of their second innings, the West Indies recovered nicely to reach 96 for one, and with the score on 186 for four at stumps with Ramnaresh Sarwan on 62, Ryan Hinds still there, Ridley Jacobs and Gareth Breese to come, they had another wonderful opportunity to make a bid for victory.
Such was the pitch that a victory target of 160 or so could have been difficult for India - provided the West Indies bowled well and took their catches.
Once again, however, the West indies, at 208 for four at one and looking good, muffed it with their last six wickets tumbling for 21 runs.
It was a poor performance - no question about it.
In the midst of yet another disaster, however, there were some encouraging signs. Fast bowler Jermaine Lawson, playing in his first Test, bowled well, and although one should apologise to his team-mates for the manner of his dismissal and one once again failed to go all the way, Wavell Hinds and Sarwan batted brilliantly.
Batting is scoring runs, no batsman can score runs without hitting the ball, the more defensive batsmen are, the more the bowlers get on top, and after the tentative play of the West Indies batsmen in the three previous innings - after the prodding and blocking, Hinds and Sarwan attacked the Indian bowlers in the second innings, and sent them running for cover.
In a beautiful display of batting the West Indies way, the left-handed Hinds went back to the pacers and flicked and pulled with authority; and instead of pushing out and searching for the ball, he either chipped and drove the spinners or went back to them and cut and pulled.
Sarwan was just as good. After pushing around and looking out of his depth previously, the right-hander was good coming forward or going back, and a drive through the covers off Singh, a drive for six over long-off the offspinner and a back foot cut for four off Kumble were strokes of class.
Because of a careless stroke, the West Indies failed to benefit from the brilliance of Wavell Hinds and Sarwan. It was, however, a wonderful display, it did not allow the Indian bowlers, particularly the spinners, to drop into a rhythm, the result was that they looked ordinary during the assault, and hopefully it will be a reminder to the West Indies batsmen that the best way to defend is to attack.
