Shami, Yadav pile on misery for West Indies
ANTIGUA TEST: Kraigg Brathwaite was the only batsman to defy the Indian assault for a period of time but his was the last wicket to fall
NORTH SOUND, ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: Mohammed Shami snared two more wickets and Umesh Yadav grabbed his first victims as the West Indies crashed to 157 for seven replying to India’s first innings total of 566 for eight declared at tea on the third day of the first Test on Saturday.
Opener Kraigg Brathwaite was the only batsman to defy the Indian assault for any protracted period but his was the last wicket to fall before the interval.
Unable to get his bat out of the way of a sharp lifter from Yadav, he fell for 74, giving wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha his fifth dismissal of the innings.
Yadav had claimed his first wicket of the innings just a few minutes earlier when he ended the brief defiance of Roston Chase, the debutant miscuing an attempted pull when on 23 and giving a simple catch to Indian captain Virat Kohli at short midwicket.
His dismissal ended a 47-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Brathwaite and held up India’s progress for just over an hour when it appeared they would have ripped through the rest of a suspect batting line-up just after lunch.
That was when Shami, in the midst of an inspired spell of bowling, removed Marlon Samuels and Jermaine Blackwood in the same over to have the West Indies tottering at 92 for five.
Having dismissed Darren Bravo just before lunch to a catch at the wicket, Shami then drew Samuels into a careless waft outside the off-stump for Saha to take another catch and extend the experienced batsman’s wretched form in Tests since the tour of Sri Lanka nine months earlier.
Blackwood was then surprised by the extra pace and bounce of the bowler’s fourth delivery to him and Rahane held the comfortable catch at gully to send the batsman back to the pavilion without scoring.
At that stage, the West Indies had lost four wickets for 24 runs either side of the lunch interval.
In contrast to the afternoon rout, India were made to work hard for early success at the start of the day as Brathwaite and nightwatchman Devendra Bishoo defied the efforts of all five frontline bowlers for 75 minutes.
Amit Mishra got the breakthrough, the leg-spinner luring Bishoo into the sweep shot and Saha effecting the sharp stumping the batsman marginally out of his ground.
Real hopes for prolonged resistance rested heavily on the shoulders of Brathwaite and new batsman Bravo.
But the left-hander’s attempt to gather runs backward of point off Shami proved his undoing as extra bounce resulted in an edge to Saha and jubilation among the Indians.
There was much more celebration in the afternoon session for the visitors and it was left to wicketkeeper-batsman Shane Dowrich, who was almost caught at slip off Ravichandran Ashwin just before tea, and captain Jason Holder, to show some measure of defiance at the start of the day’s final session. India first innings: ......................... 566/8 decl West Indies first innings (O/n: 31/1): K Brathwaite c Saha b Yadav .................................. 74 R Chandrika c Saha b Shami .................................. 16 D Bishoo st Saha b Mishra ..................................... 12 D Bravo c Saha b Shami ......................................... 11 M Samuels c Saha b Shami ..................................... 1 J Blackwood c Rahane b Shami ............................... 0 R Chase c Kohli b Yadav ......................................... 23 S Dowrich (not out) ................................................ 57 J Holder c Saha b Yadav ......................................... 36 C Brathwaite b Yadav ............................................... 0 S Gabriel b Mishra ................................................... 2 Extras (B-4, LB-2, W-2, NB-3) ........................ 11 Total (For 90.2 overs, all out) ..................... 243 Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-68, 3-90, 4-92, 5-92, 6-139, 7-144, 8-213, 9-213. Bowling: I Sharma 20-7-44-0, U Yadav 18-8-41-4, M Shami 20-4-66-4, R Ashwin 17-5-43-0, A Mishra 15.2-4-43-2. West Indies second innings: (F/o) K Brathwaite lbw Sharma ........................................ 2 R Chandrika (not out) .............................................. 9 D Bravo (not out) ................................................... 10 Extras: ......................................................... 0 Total (for 13 overs, 1 wkt)............................ 21 Fall of wicket: 1-2 Bowling: I Sharma 4-2-3-1, M Shami 4-3-2-0, U Yadav 3-1-8-0, R Ashwin 2-0-8-0.