Chanderpaul leads Windies fight back with century

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s  unbeaten 24th test century hauled West Indies out of a rut,  powering them to 256 for five wickets on the opening day of the  first test against India today.
Chanderpaul (111 not out) featured in a 108-run  fourth-wicket stand with opener Kraigg Brathwaite (63) to  rebuild the innings after the visitors had slumped to 72-3 soon  after lunch.
One of only two West Indies players — Marlon Samuels is the  other — with prior experience of having played a test in India,  this was 37-year-old Chanderpaul’s seventh century against the  hosts containing seven fours and two sixes.
Carlton Baugh (19 not out) was batting with Chanderpaul in  the middle at stumps as West Indies managed to recover after  Indian spinners Pragyan Ojha (3-58) and Ravichandran Ashwin  (2-79) had wrecked their top order.
The tourists got off to a poor start after skipper Darren  Sammy had won the toss and decided to bat first at the Feroz  Shah Kotla stadium.
Aware of their spin frailty, India captain Mahendra Singh  Dhoni brought left-arm spinner Ojha into the attack in the 10th  over and was soon rewarded.
Ojha dropped Kieran Powell (14) off his sixth delivery but  made amends when he returned to trap the batsman leg before in  his next over.
Ojha struck again in the 24th over when the in-form Kirk  Edwards (15) drove forwards to give the spinner a return catch.
Ashwin would not be denied his maiden test wicket as he  forced a delivery through Darren Bravo’s (12) porous defence in  the first over after lunch.
However, Brathwaite dug in at the other end and Chanderpaul  looked more at ease against the spinners, even hitting Ashwin  for a six midway through his innings.
Ojha ended Brathwaite’s 262-minute vigil by getting him  stumped soon after the  tea break and Ashwin had Samuels (15)  caught behind.