Collins bowls into West Indies squad

BARBADOS LEFT-ARM pacer Pedro Collins has replaced his injured brother Fidel Edwards in the only change to the West Indies 13-man squad for the second Digicel Test against India starting in St. Lucia on Saturday.

Edwards bowled just 5.4 overs in the India second innings in the just-concluded Test match at the Antigua Recreation Ground after pulling up with an injured hamstring. Collins, 29, recently recovered from injury and has not played for the West Indies since the home series against South Africa last year April.

THRILLING DRAW

The first Test ended in a thrilling draw on Tuesday when the West Indies last pair Corey Collymore and injured Edwards, batting with a runner, held on inan agonising 19-ball wait for the home fans to avoid defeat in a remarkable India fightback.

The Indians had trailed by 130 runs on first innings but smashed a second innings 521 for six declared to pressure the West Indies with a 392-run winning target on the last day.

West Indies finished on 297 for nine after Edwards (one) and Collymore (one) fended off spinner Anil Kumble and pacer Shantha Sreesanth under mounting tension to ensure that the two teams are level at 0-0 in the four-Test series.

West Indies captain Brian Lara and India's Rahul Dravid were left searching for superlatives following the dramatic Test.

"It was a great Test match, it ebbed and flowed for three days," Lara said. "It edged away from us on the fourth and fifth days, but I must commend the guys for showing a lot of character.

"I must also commend India for the way they fought after the first-innings deficit."

STARRY-EYED

Indian captain Dravid was also starry-eyed about the way the match unfolded.

"It was a great Test match, a fantastic Test match," he said.

"We had our backs to the wall with three days to go, but the boys showed a lot of character to come back."

Dravid did not betray any disappointment that his team had been unable to force the win.

"The wicket didn't deteriorate as badly as you would expect a fifth-day wicket to," Dravid said. "We had a great effort to be in the position that we were in at the end of the day."

Brian Lara (captain), Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine

Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Ian Bradshaw, Dave Mohammed, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore, Jerome Taylor and Runako Morton.