Mohammed Siraj's sizzling fifer, half-centuries from Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma put India back on the winning track

Rain, magic and Test cricket wrapped in a flavour of the T20 format was the true essence of the fourth day as India suddenly catapulted themselves from a laden affair till the end of the third day to the driver's seat at the end of the fourth in the second Test at Trinidad.

It all started with West Indies stationed comfortably at 229/5 at the start of the day's play. Mukesh Kumar began the proceedings for India and after a snubbed appeal on the second ball of his first over, the debutant finally managed to get his prize a ball later. With seam off the deck on offer, Kumar was quick to exploit as a subtle late wobble took Alick Athanaze by surprise and before he could parry that, the ball had already crashed onto his pads.

The fall of Athanaze was the unravelling of the Pandora's box for West Indies, as the probing came from all directions, but their chief tormentor was Mohammed Siraj. Miyan weaved his magic in his very first over of the day and it was more of a riposte to the earlier boundary conceded by him against Holder.

Getting to angle his outswinger away from the right-hander, the ball took a sharp nick of his blade to fly into Ishan Kishan’s gloves. This was just the beginning of the end for West Indies and another blazing testimony to the kind of onslaught that Siraj can unleash.

The next victim to Siraj's magic was Alzarri Joseph as he failed to pick the wobble seam and the review clearly showed that the ball would have clipped leg stump in its receding flight path. Pulling off a dead ringer to Holder's dismissal, Siraj produced another outswinger that kept on angling away from Roach. The latter's effort to drive it cost him dearly as Kishan pouched the catch comfortably behind the stumps.

Courtesy of the collapse, West Indies were skittled out for 255, handing India an emphatic lead of 183 runs in the first innings. Siraj finished with magical figures of 23.4-6-60-5.

Walking out to bat, India were off to an absolute blinder as Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal started peppering the Islanders as if they were in the midst of a T20 fixture. The Indian captain brought up a glistening fifty in no time while Jaiswal played the perfect two-to-tango as the duo kept their feet on the gas throughout.

India lost their first wicket just at the cusp of what would have been a third consecutive century partnership between Sharma and Jaiswal, with the Indian skipper falling to Shannon Gabriel. The fall of Rohit for 57 did very little to deter the Indian spirits, apart from a bit of a pause when the heavens cracked open and it started pouring down. 

After a brief hiatus in play, Jaiswal and Shubman Gill had intentions of starting exactly from where they left but Jomel Warrican removed the Indian opener for 38, reeling in India's effusive flow for a while.

Knowing what exactly had to be done then, it was Ishan Kishan who was out in the middle to play his natural game and the hosts could barely get any reprieve. India declared as soon as Kishan completed his half-century from just 34 balls, posting 181 on the board while a target of 365 was set for the Windies.

Compared to his glorious faring in the first innings, Siraj had more of an uneventful spell in the second, clamping down on the Caribbean batters from one end while Ravichandran Ashwin clinched a couple of wickets at the other in the form of Kraigg Brathwaite and Kirk McKenzie to finish things off on a high for the visitors. At the end of the fourth day's play, West Indies could manage 76/2 on the board, still needing 289 runs to get on the final day as another crackling finish to a Test match awaits us all.