India has won two Tests in Jamaica, losing six and drawing four, against West Indies.
Sabina Park in Jamaica is considered to be the fastest pitch in the Caribbean where the Indian team has always struggled to come to terms with the West Indies pace attack. However, despite their shortcomings, the Indian batsmen and bowlers have performed wonderfully well on the ground and have helped the team save face.
Keeping this in mind, Team COC presents to you the five most memorable performances by Indians at the Sabina Park, Jamaica ground, where India has won two Tests in 2006 and 2011 while drawing the match in 2016.
Check out the five memorable performances by Indian players at Sabina Park, Jamaica
HARBHAJAN SINGH- 5/13, 2006
The Indian team had lost six out of nine Tests played at the Sabina Park venue before this match in 2006. The Indian team was led by Rahul Dravid and were missing their most premier batsman in Sachin Tendulkar, but had a formidable bowling contingent featuring Harbhajan, Kumble, Sreesanth and Munaf Patel.
Batting first, India had scored 200 runs in the first innings and needed to bowl out West Indies cheaply in order to gain an utmost advantage in the match. This only became possible due to a brilliant haul of 5/13 by Harbhajan Singh. He picked up wickets of Daren Ganga, Dwayne Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dinesh Ramdin, and Pedro Collins, removing the dangerous lower order for cheap and helping India gain an important lead of 97 runs.
DILIP SARDESAI- 212, 1971
It was an innings of grit and great technique that helped India fightback from a troublesome position of 66/5. Thanks to 4/65 from Prasanna and two wickets apiece from Bishan Bedi and three from S Venkataraghavan, India bowled out the opposition for 217 runs and forced them to follow-on.
NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU- 116, 1989
The 1980s was the era of the terror of the West Indies fast bowlers and year 1989 saw the Indian team tour the Caribbean with the opposition fast bowlers in their prime. The fourth and the last Test match of the series was played in Jamaica and West Indies featured bowlers like Sir Curtly Ambrose, Ian Bishop, Courtney Walsh, and Malcolm Marshall.
India had already lost the series by losing two Tests and drawing one and came into this match to save pride. And they got a good start when opener Navjot Singh Sindhu slammed a gritty 358-minute, 237-ball 116-run innings which were adorned with 13 fours. He faced the barrage of bouncers from the opposition fast bowlers when no other Indian batsman reached fifty and his innings helped India reach a score of 289 runs.
ANIL KUMBLE- 6/78, 2006
If Harbhajan Singh had helped the Indian team bowl West Indies out for 103 in the first innings helping India gain a 97-run lead, it was Anil Kumble who helped the team win the match with an amazing bowling performance in the second innings.
India had managed to score 171 runs in the second innings to post a 269-run target for West Indies and have a chance at winning a series in West Indies, as the first three Tests of the series had ended in a draw. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dinesh Ramdin scored valiant fifties, but Anil Kumble got some sharp turn and uneasy bounce from the Kingston pitch, to claim 6/78 in 22.4 overs.
His wickets included the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, and Marlon Samuels, who could have taken their team past the victory line, but Kumble ensured that India won the match by 49 runs.
RAHUL DRAVID- 81 & 68, 2006
Harbhajan Singh picked 5/13 and Anil Kumble picked 6/78 to do their jobs in helping India win an amazing Test match at the ground. But it wouldn’t have been possible without some brilliant batting from skipper Rahul Dravid, who withered some storm and took on the mantle of scoring runs in absence of Sachin Tendulkar.
It was Dravid’s 81 with some assistance of Anil Kumble’s 45, helped India to a score of 200. That 81 came off 215 balls and held the innings together. Jerome Taylor, Pedro Collins, Dwayne Bravo, and Corey Collymore did their best to dislodge the gritty Indian captain, but couldn’t do much until he fell as the 8th wicket.
After gaining an important 97-run lead, India needed to score some big runs on the board in the second do, but again, the top order failed to contribute much. Dravid again stood like the rock of Gibraltar and slammed his second half-century of the match, a score of 68 in 166 balls with 12 fours, as India made 171 and set West Indies a target of 269 runs. He was named the Man of the Match for his brilliance with the bat, given the difficulty batsmen faced on the spiteful pitch.