WI vs IND 1st Test Day-3: Opening pair stumbles in front of Ashwin-Jadeja to put visitors in full control

The spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja provided India with an ideal start after they decided to declare their innings on 421 in the second session of the first Test at Windsor Park on Friday.

At the end of the session of Day-3, West Indies managed to put up a total of 27/2 with Jermaine Blackwood and Raymon Reifer unbeaten on the crease with scores of 4(3)* and 7(36)* respectively.

Virat Kohli and Jadeja resumed the second session with a bit of luck as they tried to further increase India’s lead.

Kohli once again rode on his luck and survived for the second time as he tried to drive the ball but found an edge that the wicketkeeper eventually dropped.

However, even with another lifeline Kohli failed to extend his stay for a long period as Cornwall forced the right-handed batter to play the flick shot, but the extra-bounce factor kicked in to surprise Kohli and his shot went straight into the hands of Athanaze.

Jadeja and Ishan Kishan from that point took over to extend India’s lead. India finally decided to declare for a score of 421/5. Jadeja walked back to the dugout with a score of 37* while Kishan only managed to score a run after facing 20 deliveries.

West Indies came to begin their second innings with a trail of 271 runs. After impressing with the bat, Jadeja drew the first blood as he dismissed Chanderpaul for 7(28) by trapping him right in front of the stumps. A couple of overs later Ashwin joined the party a couple of overs later to dismiss West Indies skipper Brathwaite for 7.

Earlier in the game, having started the day on 312 for 2, Jaiswal and Kohli showed great patience throughout their 110-run partnership. Jaiswal was the first to bring up his 150, becoming the third Indian after Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma to do so on Test debut.

But in the 126th over, Alzarri Joseph provided the important breakthrough for West Indies as Jaiswal departed after a dream knock of 171 in his debut innings. Joseph managed to produce an edge from Jaiswal’s bat as Joshua Da Silva made no mistake behind the gloves to grab it.

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Jaiswal’s wicket invited Ajinkya Rahane to the crease. Rahane got off to the mark early with a single. Virat Kohli continued to bat with his cautious approach. Seasoned batter Rahane departed for just three as Kemar Roach got his first of the night. A soft dismissal as Rahane pushed it on the cover where Jermaine Blackwood took an easy catch. 

At this point, West Indies started to fight back and crawled back into the game now. Kohli brought up his half-century with a single off Jomel Warrican’s to reach the mark. The batting maestro took 147 balls to hit the half-century. He displayed great discipline in the innings but needed to break the shackles to up the run rate. 

Ravindra Jadeja also started slow and scored three runs off 21 balls. On the other side, Kohli continues to bat with the same defensive approach to take India forward. Only six runs came off the last four overs for India. However, it did not take Jadeja to break the shackles and smashed Alick Athanaze for a maximum.

Kohli followed shortly after as he smashed Kraigg Braithwaite for a boundary. 13 runs came off the last overs as India decided to up the run rate before the Lunch break. Two wickets fell in the session as the 44-run partnership between Kohli and Jadeja took India to 400/4 at the time of lunch on day three.

Brief score: West Indies 150 & 27/2 (Tagenarine Chanderpaul 7; Ravichandran Ashwin 1-14) vs India 421/5 d (Yashasvi Jaiswal 171, Rohit Sharma 103; Kemar Roach 1-50).