Stuart Law targets first-innings score of 350 for Windies

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the visitors were reduced to 113/5 within the first 40 overs of play. However, a 174-ball 98* from Roston Chase and a defiant 52 from returning skipper Jason Holder helped them recover to end the day at 295/7.

"We had a decent start – each batter got off to a reasonable start, we just needed one or two of them to kick on and get big hundreds," said Law after the day's play on Friday, 12 October.

"We sat down and spoke, we did not want to shy away from the hard work. We wanted to stand up and make a statement, come back and fight hard. To our credit, with Roston, Shane Dowrich and Jason Holder really showed that fight and quality to get us up to a reasonable day. It would've been nice to be only four-five wickets down, but from the position we were in, we would take it.

Law felt a total in the region of 350, along with a few early wickets with the new ball, will help his team get a hold in the game and put pressure back on the hosts.

"Bishoo can score runs, he can also keep his wicket intact. Ideally, the magic number of 400 in the first innings is what we targeted. 350-400 will be ideal for us at the moment," said Law, who is set to step down from his role in January 2019.

"Then, with Shannon Gabriel's express pace and Holder's bounce and swing, if we can get early breakthroughs and expose the Indian middle order to put them under pressure against the new ball, that would be an ideal world.

"Unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world. We would need to work our socks off to get to 350. Hopefully, there are still plenty of runs out there for us. Roston's job now is to stay not out. If he can get to 130-140 and marshall the strike, it will be ideal."

Chase, who now has two half-centuries in two Tests, looked fairly comfortable against India's spin arsenal. He put together two crucial partnerships of 69 and 104 with Dowrich and Holder to steady the ship after he walked in at 92/4.

"I think he understands spin," Law explained. "They've faced a lot of spin back in the Caribbean in domestic cricket. Also, he's got long levers. He's got long reach. He takes half a stride and he's almost down the length of the pitch so he uses that to his advantage. He's a clean striker of the ball. He plays good cricket shots. And, apart from that, we try and get the dirtiest, dustiest pitches to bat in the nets so we do learn to bat against spin quicker.

"You don't have to talk to him too much either. He's a deep thinker. At practice, you mention one thing and he just goes about it his way and you can see him thinking about it," the coach continued with his praise.

"He's working out how to play the game, which is better. You learn quicker and you get success quicker if you're actually learning the game rather than people telling you the game. You try and give him everything that's going to be thrown at him, discuss how I'd go about it, and he works it into his game."