Date-stamped : 22 Dec96 - 02:15

====> Day 1, more
West Indies hit by missiles - D. J. Rutnagur

THROWING of stones and hard fruit at West Indian fielders  caused
two long stoppages and nearly forced the abandonment of the open-
ing day`s play in the second Test.

The pleasant highlights were a century by Navjot Singh Sidhu  and
an  accomplished  unbeaten 81 by Sachin Tendulkar. Together, they
put on 177 for India`s third wicket.

Match after match on this tour, fielders in the  deep  have  been
targets  for  missiles  thrown  from  the crowd. West Indies` ex-
asperated captain, Courtney Walsh, had declared after  a  one-day
international in Kanpur that next time it happened, he would take
his team off.

That is exactly what Walsh did  when,  25  minutes  after  lunch,
Shivnarine  Chanderpaul was struck by a brick. There was a repeat
after tea when an unripe guava was aimed at Phil Simmons. The two
stoppages   added   up   to the loss of 16 overs.  The first such
assault of the day, when  Stuart  Williams was struck on the head
by a stone, was generously overlooked.

"It would have been hard to get the team back  on  the  field  if
there  had been another incident," said Walsh. "The constant fear
of being hit is affecting us."

The stoppages could have been more prolonged but  for  swift  and
firm  action  by  Raman Subba Row, the ICC referee. On both occa-
sions he was out in the  thick  of  things  within  a couple   of
minutes of the players leaving the field.

A couple of overs in the morning sufficed to warn  the  West  In-
dies, who lost the toss, that they were in for a hard slog in the
field. The pitch lacked pace and resilience and  Manoj  Prabhakar
and Sidhu were untroubled in laying the foundations.

The cement was not quite dry, however, when two wickets fell  or,
rather,  were  squandered  within a run of each other.  Prabhakar
and then Vinod Kambli tried to hit Carl Hooper over the  top  and
holed  out,   the   latter   claimed  with a magnificent catch at
mid-off by Williams.

Then Sidhu and Tendulkar stayed together until 10 minutes  before
the  close when Hooper struck.  Sidhu, driving, was caught at the
wicket.

Thanks :: The Electronic Telegraph
<END> Contributed by Bharat (bharat@scr.siemens.com)