A fire-and-ice moment, and a clanger

After waiting for long to get a chance to play Test cricket, Praveen Kumar nearly hit the jackpot in his first game. He grabbed three wickets to go through the West Indian middle order and a five-for on debut beckoned when his feet crushed his dream. He ran three times onto the danger area and that was it. No more bowling in the first innings. He stood there, almost dazed by the events. MS Dhoni who walked across to keep from the other end had to wave him away to his fielding spot. It wasn't long before Praveen disappeared into the dressing room.

Ishant Sharma was stirred by the sight of Fidel Edwards coming out with the bat. He glared hard, Edwards looked back and at one point Ishant fired across a bouncer. Edwards ducked and by the time he looked up Ishant was staring down at him. The next ball was a full delivery and though it was the oldest set up in the world, Edwards couldn't hold himself back. He had a wild swing and the ball rushed past the stumps. Ishant held his head in agony.

Sammy leads West Indies in Jamaica while the island's biggest draw, Chris Gayle, remains out of the team. Under normal circumstances Sammy would probably not get too many dinner offers at Kingston, and things turned dire when he dropped Rahul Dravid. It came straight at him at second slip but he grassed a sitter. The sparse crowd stomped their feet in anger.

VVS Laxman failed in the first innings, but today he failed to even open his account. He leaned forward to a seemingly harmless length delivery and hit it straight back to the bowler Sammy, who couldn't stop smiling. As ever, Laxman stood there for a while before he broke out of his reverie and walked back.