EVERYONE knew at the start of yesterday’s fourth day that Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the key.

The West Indies needed a long knock from the outstanding 36 year-old lefthander to pull off what would have been a remarkable win over India, the World’s No 1 team, in the first Digicel Test at Sabina Park.

So when he fell in the eighth over of the morning for 30, caught at short cover as he drove too early at the impressive debutant seamer Praveen Kumar, Indians celebrated and West Indians knew the game was up.

Caribbean heads had actually started to drop two overs earlier when the other batsman from overnight, talented young left-hander Darren Bravo, fell for 41.

As it turned out, a stubborn West Indies lower order carried the match 35 minutes into the post-lunch session before folding for 262 — the highest score of the match — as India triumphed by 63 runs.

The visitors will now take a 1-0 series lead into next week’s second Test at Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Scores in a game which ended with more than a-day-and-a-half to spare, on a pitch which was friendly to bowlers throughout: India 246 and 252; West Indies 173 and 262.

It was the second straight Test win for India at Sabina Park following their 49-run triumph four years ago in another low-scoring game on a pitch which favoured bowlers even more.

As he has already done many times since he took over as West Indies captain last year, Darren Sammy justifiably blamed his batsmen.

“It showed up once again that if we had batted properly we could have come out victors,” he told interviewer Ian Bishop at the presentation ceremony.

But the West Indies captain will also know that his bad miss at second slip that gave Man-of-the-Match Rahul Dravid a reprieve when only six in India’s second innings, was pivotal.

The 38 year-old Dravid, who went on to make a 274-ball 112, the only century of the game, praised the groundsmen for producing “a great cricket wicket”.

Said he: “There was something for the bowlers — the faster bowlers as well as the spinners — and as a batsman if you got stuck in you could get runs as well.”

Once again it was Kumar — described by his captain MS Dhoni as “a very skilful bowler” — who triggered West Indian decline yesterday with the early wicket of Bravo.

Having influenced Dhoni to shift the square-leg fielder to backward square, Kumar three balls later aimed at the leg stump, and hit it, with the left-hander moving too far across his stumps.

Bravo, who started the day on 30 and charmed the small gathering with a delightful cover-driven boundary off the giant pacer Ishant Sharma, had made 41 with seven fours off 89 balls.

Kumar’s nagging three-quarter length took care of Chanderpaul – the left-hander driving at one which may have held up slightly off the pitch — for a tame catch to Suresh Raina at cover. The score was then 149-5 and with Sharma getting the odd one to bounce alarmingly and the spinners finding sharp turn and variable bounce, the question was whether the game would last till lunch.

A tentative Carlton Baugh (0), celebrating his 29th birthday, pushed forward in defence to his fourth ball only to lob a catch to Virat Kohli at leg slip and present off-spinner Harbhajan Singh with his only wicket of the innings.

Sammy (25) briefly removed Harbhajan from the attack with three successive sixes into the North Stand in the arc between ‘straightish’ midwicket and long on.

But the West Indies captain pushed his 11th delivery bowled by wrist-spinner Amit Mishra into the hands of VVS Laxman at short cover at 181-7.

Brendan Nash’s poor run continued when his attempt to pull a shorter delivery from Mishra was defeated by low bounce.

It was then left to Ravi Rampaul with 34 (32 balls, six fours, one six), Devendra Bishoo 26 (33 balls, two fours, one six) and Fidel Edwards not out 15 (54 balls, one four) to show what may have been possible had the main batsmen shown greater application.

Scoreboard

INDIA 1st Innings 246

WEST INDIES 1st Innings 173

INDIA 2nd Innings 252

WEST INDIES 2nd Innings (overnight 131-3)

A Barath c Raina b Kumar 38

L Simmons b Sharma 27

R Sarwan c Kohli b Sharma 0

D Bravo b Kumar 41

S Chanderpaul c Raina b Kumar 30

B Nash lbw b Mishra 9

+C Baugh c Kohli b Harbhajan Singh 0

*D Sammy c Laxman b Mishra 25

R Rampaul c wkp Dhoni b Sharma 34

F Edwards not out 15

D Bishoo b Raina 26

Extras (b1, lb13, w2, nb1) 17

TOTAL (all out; 68.2 overs) 262

Fall of wickets: 1-62 (Barath), 2-63 (Sarwan), 3-80 (Simmons), 4-148 (Bravo), 5-149 (Chanderpaul), 6-150 (Baugh), 7-181 (Sammy), 8-188 (Nash), 9-223 (Rampaul), 10-262 (Bishoo)

Bowling: Kumar 16-3-42-3, Sharma 17-3-81-3, Mishra 13-1-62-2, Harbhajan Singh 16-3-54-1, Raina 6.2-1-9-1

Result: India win by 63 runs

Series: India lead three-match series 1-0

Man-of-the-Match: Rahul Dravid

Toss: India

Umpires: I Gould, D Harper; TV – N Malcolm