By Tony Becca, Senior Sport Editor 
West Indies' Pedro Collins (left) and Ridley Jacobs celebrate the fall of India's Sachin Tendulkar during yesterday's action at Sabina Park. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
THE 2002 CABLE & Wireless series enters its final day today at Sabina Park with the fifth and final day of the fifth and final Test match with the West Indies, thanks to pacer Pedro Collins and a bit of good fortune, on the doorstep of victory.
It is said that it is never over until the fat lady sings; but with all their specialist batsmen gone, with only Ajay Ratra and the tail-enders left to fight, India's only hope of escaping defeat is rain - and plenty of it.
When bad light stopped play yesterday with four overs to go, the scoreboard read, West Indies 422 and 197, India 212 and 237 for seven, and with India still 171 runs away from the victory target with only three wickets in hand, the odds are definitely and overwhelmingly in the Windies favour.
If, as expected, the West Indies carry on and win the winner-take-all showdown to take the series two-one, captain Carl Hooper should salute Collins and probably thank the gods.
Set a target of 408 to win the match 84 overs and an entire day too, India, despite the memory of their grand performance when they chipped to 406 for four to beat the West Indies at Queen's Park Oval in 1976, were always up against it - particularly when they slipped to 77 for three in the 30th over with Collins taking care of Wasim Jaffer and Shiv Sundar Das to hand the Windies a dream start at 25 for two and Adam Sanford winning a leg before decision to cut down an impressive Rahul Dravid.
At tea, however, with India on 166 for three, captain Sourav Ganguly batting solidly on 23 and master batsman Sachin Tendulkar on 82, batting like a genius and in all his glory, the showdown appeared heading for a blazing finish even though the odds still favoured the home team.
After failing to win a match in 12 years for India batting in the fourth innings, Tendulkar, with 29 centuries in his bag and 12 of his majestic strokes flashing to the boundary, looked dangerous; and when he pounced on the first delivery after tea and cut Collins to the third-man boundary, it appeared that the great batsman was in the mood and on the way to something great.
That, however, was not to be. Five balls later, the last delivery of the over, Tendulkar, going back defensively, was beaten and bowled by a nasty delivery - the ball skidding through inches above the ground after hitting the pitch.
Jamaicans, it is said, know cricket, and the silence while he was cutting and square-driving the West Indies pacers, the jubilation around the ground, the eruption that greeted Collins' strike, demonstrated that despite the odds against an Indian victory, the fans knew that it was not over as long as Tendulkar was at the crease.
They probably also knew that it would have been over as soon as he was dismissed - and with only Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra to come that may well have been the case but for one lapse when Ratra, on nine at 219 for six, attempted to pull his bat away from a short delivery from Sanford and the ball ran of the face of the bat and straight to second slip where Hooper dropped the catch with 14 overs to go.
With their lifeline gone, the target still 238 runs away and about 121 overs still to go, India all but surrendered.
Ganguly, batting with such composure while Tendulkar was around, hit a short delivery from Sanford straight to Ramnaresh Sarwan at mid-wicket to make it 176 for five; and after a few hooks and pulls, Vangipurappu Laxman, batting like a man who had given up hope, attempted to pull Sanford and the ball flew high to mid-wicket where Mervyn Dillon, with a well judged catch, made it 209 for six.
With the top six out of the way, with only Ratra and the tail-enders in the way, the West Indies were on the way and were all smiles when Singh swung at offspinner Chris Gayle and Cameron Cuffy, moving in and to his right at long-on, took a well judged low catch to make it 229 for seven with nine overs to the end of the day.
Earlier in the day, the West Indies, resuming on 165 for seven with Shivnarine Chanderpaul on 55 and Collins on four, lost Chanderpaul in the second over when the left-hander, after opening up with a lovely hit to the wide long-on boundary, drove a return catch to Khan.
The dismissal left Chanderpaul 17 runs short of Hooper who scored the most runs for the West Indies in the series. Hooper scored 579 in seven innings at an average of 82.71, Chanderpaul 562 in seven at an average of 140.50.
