India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who bagged his 18th five-wicket haul of his career, has pointed out that a combination of bounce and speed variations played a key role in ripping apart West Indies batting line-up instead of spin on a damp Sabina Park pitch in the second Test.
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# West Indies scored 196 off 52.3 overs – the least number of overs faced in a completed innings by them on winning the toss and batting first.
Apart from Ashwin, Indian seamers Ishant Sharma (2-53) and Mohammed Shami (2-23) were also pivotal in setting the tone early in the day.
He beat the bat on more than one occasion during his spell and would have been expected to shoulder a lot of the bowling heading into the afternoon session, especially with the West Indies continuing to use their premier strike bowler, Shannon Gabriel, sparingly due to his very recent history of debilitating injuries.
Lokesh Rahul then made the most of his inclusion in the final 11 in place of the injured Murali Vijay, reaching an unbeaten 75 as India closed the first day at 126 for one in reply. His innings consisted 10 boundaries as he first added 87 runs for the first wicket with Shikhar Dhawan, and then slowly built the score with Cheteshwar Pujara to put India on a dominant position at end of Day 1.
“I’m very happy for today”.
The 24-year-old, who for four of his last seven innings struggled to get on the scoreboard, was pleased with his return to form. “A first-day five-wicket haul is obviously something a spinner will cherish”, Ashwin said in an on-field interview.
Ashwin, named Man of the Match in the first Test, and who was claiming his third five-wicket haul in as many matches, ended with five for 52.
“I think he has shown that already”, Kapil responded when asked whether Ashwin can be considered as a competent all-rounder.
Despite India ending the day on top, Ashwin cautioned that there was a long way still to go in the match. “I guess next time we will have to do that”, he said. TWO, KL Rahul leans forwards & plays a lovely cover drive.
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It obviously affected the run-rate, as only 22 runs came in the first hour of play, with Pujara taking 35 deliveries to get off his overnight score of 18*. And when he has made hundreds for us, it has been crucial knocks. However Jason Holder’s decision backfired as Indian bowlers, led by Ashwin, wreaked havoc and bowled out the hosts for 196. He made one in Sri Lanka which is very very memorable. What added to his potency was the fact that he kept the ball on the stumps more often than not, making the batsmen play constantly before they got good measure of the conditions.
