KOLKATA, India, CMC- West Indies, undermined by high quality swing bowling from Mohammad Shami, tumbled to an innings and 51 runs defeat against India in the first test here yesterday.
In a dramatic post tea session, Shami unsettled the West Indian batsmen with deliveries that swung prodigiously bowling them out for 168 in their second innings 20 minutes before the schedule close on the third day at Eden Gardens.
A few West Indies’ batsmen got starts, – Darren Bravo’s 37 was the top score, Kieran Powell made 36, Chris Gayle hit 33 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul was not out on 31 .
Shami collected 5-47 from 13.1 overs to finish with the second-best match figures by an Indian on Test debut of 9-118 and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin captured 3-46 off 19 overs.
Gayle gave West Indies a blistering start with a number of powerful off-side strokes, but the Caribbean side’s plans to remain competitive in the match were left in strife, as they stumbled to 112 for three at tea.
Gayle fell to fast-medium bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the second time in the match. He miscued a hook at a short, wide delivery from his nemesis in recent contests against this opponent and was caught at square leg.
For the duration of Gayle’s innings, Powell had been scoreless and he was fortunate, when off-spinner Ashwin dropped a return catch in his first over from a leading edge.
Powell needed 31 balls in 21 minutes to get his first run and fortune again favoured him on seven, when Kumar running a few yards to his right and diving, dropped him at deep backward square leg from the bowling of left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha.
Bravo, on nine, had two close shaves off successive deliveries in Ashwin’s eighth over, when he drove the off-spinner uppishly past silly mid-off and then edged just short of second slip fielder Virat Kohli playing defensively forward.
The two however, spent close to 1 ½ hours defying the Indian attack, putting on 68 for the second wicket, and were just shutting shop ahead of tea, when Powell was lbw playing back to a shooter from Ashwin.
Next over, Marlon Samuels was dubiously adjudged lbw to Shami for four, when he played back to a delivery that swung in sharply. Television replays suggested the delivery might have missed leg-stump.
After tea, there was little substance or stability from the West Indies batting and they lost their last seven wickets for 48 in less than 20 overs.
Earlier , India, resuming from their overnight total of 354 for six in their first innings, were eventually bowled out for 453, highlighted by a record seventh-wicket partnership between century-makers Rohit Sharma, the Man-of-the-Match, and Ravichandran Ashwin,
Off-spinner Shane Shillingford ended with 6-167 from 55 overs and left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul grabbed 2-67 from 23.4 overs.
The victory gave India a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series with the final match starting this Thursday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, the home city of the hosts’ batting megastar Sachin Tendulkar, who will be playing his 200th and final Test for his homeland.
