With a century already in the first match of the series and all three of his Test hundreds against the West Indies, Ashwin will resume in the afternoon session on 99, having been kept within a run of the landmark for the last 20 minutes of the morning´s play.
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Riding on valiant centuries from all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin (118) and stumper Wriddhiman Saha (104), India recovered from the early jolts they received on the opening day. Chasing a wide delivery from Alzarri Joseph, the wicketkeeper-batsman edged a catch to his West Indian counterpart Shane Dowrich to give the debutant fast bowler his third wicket of the innings.
The 25-year-old seemed to be heading for another wicket-less outing in the second day of the third Test here yesterday when he produced a hostile burst in the second session as India declined from 339 for five to 353 all out – losing their last five wickets for just 14 runs.
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma.
India now lead the four-test series 1-0. The two batsmen first steadied the sinking Indian ship with calculated risks and then went onto score their hundreds to put India in firm control. Later, in reply Kraigg Brathwaite led Windies’ solid reply as his unbeaten 53-run knock guided the hosts to 107/1 at stumps. They added 59 runs for the first wicket before a direct hit from Rahul at midwicket ran Johnson out for 23.
Starting the day with a flurry of short balls outside the batsman’s arc, West Indies didn’t make use of the semi-new ball on offer.
R. Ashwin acknowledges the crowd after reaching his fifty on the first day of the third Test against the West Indies.
“We are now looking to build on the score and looking to get a big first innings total, comeback and bowl stronger and learn a little bit from the West Indies bowlers and bowl with discipline”.
Contrary to what had prevailed previously in the series, India’s bowlers found the West Indies top order to be particularly obdurate in navigating through 47 overs for the loss of only Leon Johnson’s wicket. I wanted to leave the balls and I wanted to play close to the body.
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Spinner Chase and pacer Joseph picked up their second wickets during the post-lunch with disclipined bowling and maintaining both line and length.
