India were held by Carlos Braithwaite and Devendra Bishoo for a long time before tea as the duo put up a 95-run stand for the ninth wicket.
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India bowled out the West Indies for 243 in their firstinnings, having amassed 566 for eight declared after opting tobat.
Earlier, a short rain shower stopped India’s march as the hosts went into lunch at 76/2.
After tea, Brathwaite reached his third Test fifty, butthe rest of the innings folded in just over 40 minutes. A ball later, Ashwin wrapped things up knocking off Shannon Gabriel’s off stump to hand India victory with one day to spare.
Three players from India failed in the match.
Ravichandran Ashwin led India to a simple victory in the first Test against West Indies, the tourists winning by an innings and 92 runs in North Sound. The two batsmen beganagain in the same vein, trying to play for time, and in doingso, the latter crossed the 50-mark off 74 balls raising hopesof a fight back. The strongly-built Brathwaite made 51 not out – his third half-century in as many Test matches – to follow up his 69 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January and 59 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground last December. Start of Day 4, and West Indies were 21 for 1, with opener and vice-captain Kraigg Brathwaite already back in the pavilion.
Then, Indian asked the West Indian batsman to bat on and gave them follow on.
Debutant Roston Chase displayed a measure of grit in a 47-run stand for the sixth wicket with Brathwaite, but hemiscued an attempted pull off Yadav to give Kohli a simple catch at short midwicket and Brathwaite could not get out of the way of a sharp lifter to give a catch behind. He had gone wicket-less in the first innings as well as on the morning of the fourth day, but during the second session he was near unplayable – as he found the dip, drift, turn and bounce to earn himself his first ever five-wicket haul outside Asia.
He took the wickets of Darren Bravo (11), Marlon Samuels (one) and Jermaine Blackwood (nought) as the Windies lost three wickets for two runs.
Umesh Yadav got his team off to the ideal start in the morning, the fast bowler claiming the important wicket of Darren Bravo without any addition to the overnight score. Then the breakthrough finally came as Amit Mishra (1-18) was introduced into the attack, and Bishoo was stumped going for a sweep shot.
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“As a batsman myself, it was very pleasing to see and even though it was against the West Indies, I do appreciate seeing class and his was a classy knock”. “I don’t get surprised with what I do because I really enjoy my batting, but I know I still have a lot of work to do to really establish myself in the top six”.
