By Fifties from captain Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli put India in control despite West Indies striking hard in the second session as the visiting side ended with 288/4 at stumps on day 1 of the second Test on Friday at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain in Trinidad.
India went with one change for the marquee 100th Test between the two sides, with Mukesh Kumar making his senior debut, replacing Shardul Thakur, who was out injured.
West Indies had two changes in its XI – Shannon Gabriel came in for Rahkeem Cornwall, and the 22-year-old Jamaican all-rounder Kirk McKenzie made his Test debut replacing Raymon Reifer.
West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite’s decision to bowl first on the flat surface, which lacked pace and offered little to no assistance to the fast bowlers, seemed to backfire in the first session when Indian openers continued on their rich vein of form to forge a century stand at nearly five runs an over.
AS IT HAPPENED – INDIA vs WEST INDIES SECOND TEST DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS
After a watchful start against Kemar Roach and Alzarri Joseph, who operated with the new ball, Rohit took matters into his own hands by clearing the square leg fence off Roach in the fifth over to hit the first maximum of the innings.
Jaiswal then smashed Joseph for a boundary and a maximum in the next over, and the onslaught continued from both batters as India reached 50 inside 11 overs and 100 by the 21st, with Rohit getting to his 15th half-century with a trademark pull shot over square leg for a six off Roach.
Soon enough, Jaiswal reached his fifty with back-to-back boundaries against Joseph before lunch to help India post 121 runs in the first session.
Jason Holder, who looked good with his consistent line-and-length, gave West Indies the first breakthrough just after lunch with Jaiswal’s wicket in the 32nd over after the openers added 139 runs.
Jaiswal was caught by debutant Mckenzie on 57 at first slip when the left-hander nicked an outside off-stump ball while attempting a cover drive.
SCORECARD | INDIA VS WEST INDIES SECOND TEST DAY 1
Coming in at number three, Shubman Gill, yet again, failed to impress on his second outing in the series. Gill, who tends to play with hard hands initially, got off the mark with a late cut on Holder’s delivery.
Roach trapped the 23-year-old by keeping the ball away from him with the outside off-stump lines, luring Gill to drive and eventually got a faint edge just after getting hit for a boundary in the 36th over.
Brathwaite’s decision to bring Jomel Warrican into the attack worked in their favour as the left-arm spinner castled Rohit, who was looking in supreme touch.
Rohit went on to play the wrong line after Warrican fired one on the middle that spun away enough to beat his outside edge and crashed onto the off stump to deny the Indian skipper his 16th Test ton and trigger a mini-collapse which saw India going down from 139/0 to 155/3.
Rohit, en-routing his 80-run innings, became the fastest Indian opener, after Virender Sehwag, to score 2000 Test runs. The 36-year-old also became the first Indian to score 2000 runs in the World Test Championship.
Kohli, who was playing his 500th international match and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, the new batter in the middle, tried to soak in pressure after three quick wickets.
The duo played out 12 overs before Gabriel dismissed the latter with an inswinger, which uprooted the stumps right before tea to leave India at 182/4 after two sessions.
Ravindra Jadeja and Kohli had a stern task to face a spirited Windies attack, which was at its finest in the second session.
Both batters played out the initial overs of the final session with utmost care. Kohli, in particular, looked solid with some good-looking shots.
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Once the run-scoring became easy, Kohli accelerated to toy with the field placements and got to his 30th Test half-century with a boundary off Warrican.
Kohli took 67 balls to score the first 32, and the next 77 deliveries fetched him 50 runs. During his 87 not-out innings, he also surpassed South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis (25534) to become the fifth highest run-getter in international cricket.
His unbeaten 106-run partnership with Jadeja for the fifth wicket shifted the momentum back in India’s favour in the final session.
The onus now lies with the former India captain, who is eyeing his first Test hundred on foreign soil after 2018, to steer India forward with Jadeja tomorrow.
