The West Indies were going through a purple patch in the morning session yesterday, and thanks to some creative bowling by off-spinner Shane Shillingford, they had reduced the hosts to 83-5.
The lanky 30-year-old had accounted for four of those wickets and the Indian top-order was clearly struggling to read him. It was during this phase that he also managed to stun the 30,000 odd spectators who were following Sachin Tendulkar’s every little move in the middle.
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He trapped the Little Master with a doosra when he tried to defend within the crease. The ball hit his back leg, but TV replays showed that Tendulkar was done in by a poor decision as the ball was headed well above the stumps.
Shillingford claimed that he appealed in excitement and was probably lucky to have got the decision in his favour. “When the ball hit the back leg, I appealed and the umpire gave it out. It is my duty to appeal, so I did that,” he said.
Along with other spinners in the Caribbean, Shillingford underwent a training camp under the watch of Pakistan’s off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq recently and felt he has gained immensely from that stint. “Saqlain has taught us quite a few things and we are trying to implement them.”u00a0