Tea India 182 for 4 (Kohli 18*, Holder 1-22, Warrican 1-26) vs. West Indies
After India trailed almost five runs ahead in a wicketless first session, the West Indies reduced them to four wickets in the second.
jason holderthat continued to threaten the outer edge of
Yashasvi Jaiswal either side of lunch, he made the first cut when debutant Kirk McKenzie caught Jaiswal at Deepish Gully for 57 from 74 balls. Kemar Roach and Jomel Warrican then represented the Shubman Gill grounds (10) and
rohit sharma (80) respectively. It was Shannon Gabriel who capped off the afternoon session by sending Ajinkya Rahane cartwheeling with an inducer. India were 182 for 4 at tea on the first day.
Virat Kohli, who appeared in his
500 international gamehe was unbeaten on 18 for 44 balls on a slow Queen’s Park Oval court that had begun to offer some spin.
Warrican extracted just enough spin to beat Rohit’s outside edge and hit the stump. Kraigg Brathwaite had introduced his only spin specialist into the attack as early as the tenth, but had not been as confident in the morning session.
Gill, the new Indian No. 3, edged past Kemar Roach behind local boy Joshua da Silva. Roach had tricked Gill into playing the inside corner, but this ball held its line to kiss the outside edge.
The West Indies would have been particularly relieved to see the back of Jaiswal, who had already had two lives. McKenzie could have cut his innings by 4 if he hadn’t let Jaiswal’s thick outside edge go through his hands at Gully in the sixth over. Jaiswal could also have been dismissed on 52 in the last over before lunch, but Alick Athanaze seized an easier opportunity for Holder’s first slip.
However, Holder continued to investigate relentlessly, often with two gully fielders in his place, and he paid off in the second session, with McKenzie confidently hanging on to the sack of Jaiswal this time.
Kohli had taken 21 balls to go off the mark and Rahane also batted at a similarly low rate in a passage of play that stood in stark contrast to the morning session in which India went 121 runs in 26 overs without dropping a wicket.
Having shown remarkable restraint in the debut
In DominicanJaiswal shot out of the boulders on a more benign track in Port of Spain.
rohit sharmaAlso, he kept pulling in the air, both wide lines and his body, despite the presence of two men deep at the leg side limit.
Rohit needed 72 balls to reach his half century, while Jaiswal got there on just 49 balls. Rohit and Jaiswal were the first Indian opening pair to draw back-to-back berths in Test cricket in this millennium. S Ramesh and Devang Gandhi were the previous Indian opening pairing with back-to-back partnerships of the century,
in 1999 against New Zealand.
Gabriel, who had returned to the playing XI instead of a
ill rahkeem cornwall, could not pose a threat to the Indian openers. His morning shift of four overs cost the West Indies 24 runs, but he returned to produce a much more intense spell in the afternoon.
