Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who marked his return to Test cricket with four wickets against West Indies in the first Test in Antigua, has described “hard work” as his key to success, while adding that he is feeling up to the mark at the moment.
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Earlier at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Dowrich and Holder looked good in the middle and kept the scoreboard ticking for the duration of their partnership, with the West Indies’ 200-mark coming up in the 81st over and their 50-run stand coming off 80 balls. “It’s one of those games, which I will be cherishing for a very very long time”, said the man, who now has 183 wickets and 1317 runs from 33 games.
India, which is bidding to clinch third consecutive series whitewash against the Caribbean side, have now taken a one-nil lead in the four-match series. He had reached his 23rd Test fifty at the start of the second session but was the third wicket to fall in the session. They piled on some crucial runs to decrease the gap with Indias first innings total. If we’re playing five batsmen, we wanted to deepen the order.
The right-hander and Marlon Samuels had actually held India up for 22 overs before Wriddhiman Saha juggled a low catch off Chandrika (31) to set the ball rolling after lunch.
In the very next over, he removed Jermaine Blackwood (0) for a second duck in the match, with skipper Virat Kohli holding a magnificent diving catch at midwicket to aid in the dismissal.
“All in all, as a bowling unit, it was good execution, and the bowlers will be quite pleased with their performance, and as a captain I am pleased too”, he added. Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami picked up 4 wickets each while Amit Mishra bagged the remaining two. It was the second time in Test cricket that the off-spinner celebrated a double of Test hundred plus five-wicket haul.
St. John’s, Antigua (AP) – West Indies crumbled to an innings defeat against India on the fourth day of the first test on Sunday after Ravichandran Ashwin claimed seven wickets for 83 runs with some inspired off-spin.
“I think I haven’t seen any bowlers bowl so well in the early stage of the innings”, Brathwaite said.
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While R Ashwin walked away with the player of the match honours, it was Virat Kohli who finished as the highest impact player of the match. “We’re happy with the way we executed our plan”.
