Gros Islet: After rain washed away the third day of play, India came back strong on the fourth day as Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled his heart out to take five wickets that crumbled the West Indies innings and the hosts folded at 225 in their first innings on the fourth day of the third Test, here on Friday.

With a first innings lead of 128 runs, India started their second innings on a positive note as they added 49 runs in just eight overs before KL Rahul (28) edged Miguel Cummins to Brathwaite at the second slip. However, Virat Kohli (4) followed soon as the Indian skipper was trapped in front of the wicket off a Cummins’ delivery. India soon lost Shikhar Dhawan (26) as the left-handed batsman had no answer to Chase’s Yorker and was trapped in front of the wicket.

Earlier Bhuvneshwar Kumar was at his best as walked away with a five wickets that put India in the driver’s seat.
After Ishant Sharma had given India the much-needed breakthrough by dismissing Darren Bravo and R Ashwin had sent Kraig Brathwaite back to the pavilion in the morning session of the fourth day, Bhuvneshwar dominated the session after lunch and came up with a performance that has given India a ray of hope to win the rain-truncated match.

Jermaine Blackwood was Bhuvneshwar’s first victim as the batman edged it to Virat Kohli at the second slip. The bowler took his second wicket in the form of Marlon Samuels, as incoming delivery took the inside edge of the bat and hit the stumps. Then Kumar removed Jason Holder to take his third wicket, as his good length delivery came in and Holder was beaten in front of the wicket. Alzarri Joseph was Kumar’s fourth victim he bowled a good length delivery that moved away from the batsman and he edged it to Rahul at the third slip. Bhuvneshwar completed his five-wicket haul by getting Shane Dowrich caught at the first slip by Shikhar Dhawan.

In between Ashwin took the wickets of Cummins, while Ravindra Jadeja got rid of Roston Chase.