Mumabai: Ravichandran Ashwin stole Sachin Tendulkar's thunder on day four of the final Test with his maiden century that helped India to 482, after which West Indies increased their lead to 189, reaching 81 for 2 in their second innings at stumps.
Kraigg Brathwaite - who is on 34 - and Darren Bravo - on 27 - will resume play on Saturday morning. The visitors have lost the wickets of Adrian Barath and Kirk Edwards off the bowling of Pragyan Ojha.
Earlier, Tendulkar fell six runs short of his 100th international century in the first session before Ashwin hit a fluent 103. India fell 108 runs short of West Indies' first -innings total of 590 all. The offspinner, playing in his third Test, proved that he is no mug with the bat and the perfect man to replace an out-of-form Harbhajan Singh. First he shared a 97-run stand with Virat Kohli (52) and then worked with the lower order to get to three figures.
Ashwin's partnership with Kohli helped India move past the follow-on target after they were stuttering at 331 for 6 from the dismissals of VVS Laxman, Tendulkar and MS Dhoni in what proved to be an excellent first session for West Indies.
Ashwin hit 15 boundaries and two sixes in his 118-ball knock and steered paceman Ravi Rampaul to the third man boundary to bring up his ton. However, he departed next ball while miscuing a pull shot to leave India trailing by 108 runs.
Tendulkar, unbeaten on 67 overnight, hit three boundaries and a six early on the day and looked on course to reach the milestone, but he tried to o for a cut off the final ball of the 87th over off Rampaul, and got an edge to Darren Sammy at second slip. It was the tenth time in Tests and 28th time overall that Tendulkar had fallen in the 90s during his 22-year-long career.
Laxman pushed the first ball he faced on day four to Marlon Samuels at gully to become Fidel Edwards's first victim of the innings while the India captain's lack of foot movement was the main reason for his downfall as he was bowled by a full one from Sammy.
Kohli - brought in the team for Yuvraj Singh - made a decent half-cenutry, his maiden in Tests, and along with Ashwin took India past the follow-on mark. Kohli and Ashwin stood firm and added 97 for the seventh wicket.
The tail hung in with Ashwin to help him complete his century after Kohli hit legspinner Devendra Bishoo straight to Edwards at mid-on. Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron both fell cheaply to Samuels, but they managed to hold up an end to allow Ashwin to get closer to his century. Last man Ojha made sure he kept the bowlers out to allow the allrounder to go to his century off 117 balls.
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