India v West Indies observations

Couple of things that I noticed in the final India v West Indies Test...

7 minute drinks break seemed to be the norm and sitting/lying down - surely terribly body language from the fielding side no matter how hot it is (both sides were guilty)! 7 minutes - a session is only 2 hours! India may be thinking that if they'd got up a little quicker they may have had another over or two to win the match on the final day.

West Indies were right not to declare on the second evening. Loads of rubbish talked by some of the commentators (and of course Cork in the studio). The only reason to declare would have been if they thought they'd got more than India would score in two innings - less than 600 on an easy batting wicket with India's line up was never going to meet that criteria. And in India there is often a big mismatch between 1st innings scores and 2nd innings scores (and so it proved again).

There's this strange obsession with declaring on the 2nd evening to show "attacking intent" (remember England's declaration in Adelaide in 2006?). What can be more attacking than getting a huge score so you don't need to bat again, and then setting very attacking fields. If you've scored at 4+ an over and are 600+ on the second evening then consider it. If not, then don't consider it unless the weather conditions give the bowling side a big advantage - taking that to the extreme was Justin Langer back in 2007 for Somerset declaring at 50 for 8!

Time for a rethink on declaration strategy I think - the evening of the second day is a nice aim but will often not be possible or desirable. And remember, by declaring outside of a natural break you lose the overs for the change over and that isn't ideal if you're in a dominant and likely winning position....I could go on!