India look to seal series at Chennai The West Indies have bad memories of their last Test at Chennai, way back in 1988. A young mop-haired leg-spinner made his debut and proceeded to take a staggering 16 wickets in the Test, giving Ravi Shastri a win in his only Test as captain. Almost 14 years after Narendra Hirwani, another leggie - Amit Mishra - may make his debut in the second Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium tomorrow. On the other hand, Sourav Ganguly may not be willing to alter a winning combination, and no doubt the look of the freshly laid track at the stadium will play a large part in the final decision. The West Indies, for their part, will be looking to strike back after their humiliating innings loss in Mumbai, leg-spinner or no leg-spinner. As Carl Hooper pointed out, the West Indies did bounce back after being one-down in the Caribbean earlier this year, but doing it in Indian conditions, against a team that has been on a roll since then, is a different proposition altogether.

Hooper critical of West Indian batting After the West Indies notched up their first innings defeat against India, managing only 157 and 188 in their two innings at Mumbai, captain Carl Hooper was critical of his team's batting. "We batted poorly," said Hooper. "The Indians showed us how to bat on this wicket. The batting just didn't click. When you score as low as we did, you can't expect to win Test matches." "You can't place the blame at the door of one or two players," continued Hoooper. "It's about all 11 playing together, which just didn't happen here." Hooper also slammed his team's fielding performance in the match, which ended halfway through the fourth day. "The catching was pathetic. We dropped Virender Sehwag when he was on 70-odd and had to pay for it." Sehwag went on to score 147, a knock that earned him the Man of the Match award. "The way we performed in the field, there was just no question of converting half-chances," Hooper said. "The ground fielding was okay in patches, but the catching was downright poor." But the West Indian captain remained hopeful of levelling the series in the next Test at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai, recalling recent history to aid his argument. India, touring the West Indies earlier this year, were one Test up after a win at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, but the West Indies bounced back to wins at Barbados and then Jamaica. "This series reminds me of our 2-1 win in the Caribbean earlier this year," he said. "We had been one Test down then, and it could be history repeating itself. It's going to be very, very tough in these conditions, but we're still hopeful about the next Test."

Parthiv Patel named Junior Cricketer of the Year The year 2002 must count as one of Parthiv Patel's best, although to be frank, he has seen only 17 or thereabouts. Patel made his Test debut in England, impressed observers with his glove-work and temperament, and collared the wicket-keeper's slot in the Test team. So the Castrol Junior Cricketer of the Year Award will come as just the icing on the cake; ironically enough, last year's winner of the prize was the man he replaced, Ajay Ratra. The ceremony, to be held today in Chennai, will also see legendary leg-spinner BS Chandrasekhar honoured with the Castrol Lifetime Achievement Award. Meanwhile, the votes are still pouring in for the Indian Cricketer of the Year Award, with Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh in hot contention for the Rs five-lakh booty.

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