India were in control virtually from the start of the match after Holder s decision to bat first on winning the toss as the West Indies slid to seven for three within 25 minutes of play. “Hopefully they will stand up again tomorrow morning and we get the wickets we need”, he added. He had also bowled extensively in the first Test in Antigua, delivering 34 overs for 102 runs without taking a wicket in India’s only innings.
Advertisement
“So it was a good feeling getting some runs today and I was happy that I was able to help the team’s cause and get back in touch”.
Blackwood, who himself was under pressure to perform following a string of failures, adopted a counterattacking approach and scored a run-a-ball 62 before he was trapped lbw by Ravichandran Ashwin in the last over before lunch. Brief scores: West Indies 196.
Holder, who shrugged off the tropical heat to bowl a spell of nine overs, had several loud appeals for lbw against Ajinkya Rahane, who also was dropped at backward point off the bowling of leg-spinner Devenda Bishoo. Especially, Rahul looked in ominous touch as he used it feet perfectly to hit as many as 10 fours.
Starting their innings, the Indian opening pair of KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan played sensibly to add 87 runs inside the 20th over, before Dhawan fell for 27.
Even so, the West Indies pacers didn’t make things easy for the Indian batsmen.
The duo, however, were not over attacking and hence the run rate stayed on the lower side for much of the session.
Cheteshwar Pujara stroked 46, captain Virat Kohli gathered 44 while Ajinkya Rahane ended unbeaten on 42, to further exacerbate the Windies’ frustration on a day of toil with little reward. But both Rahul and Pujara were equal to the task, arching their backs and veering away from the line. Replays indicated that the ball had carried to Shane Dowrich comfortably but there was no proper evidence of Rahul edging it. His 50-run stand with Kohli came off 106 deliveries as India went into ascendancy.
Advertisement
Rahane brought up his century with a somewhat lucky boundary when he edged off-spinner Roston Chase between the wicketkeeper and first slip. His previous two hundreds were scored in 2015, coming against Australia (Sydney) and Sri Lanka (Colombo). It already represents a mountain to climb for West Indies who were bundled out for 196 in their first innings. He was on 65* at that time, and yet managed to survive this period of play and went into the break unbeaten, trying to break the shackles with two boundaries in the 148th over. This track is different and has some grass, so they will get assistance right through the match for pace bowlers.
