Port of Spain: Virat Kohli’s 121 along with fifties from Rohit Sharma (80), Ravindra Jadeja (61) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (57) and Ravichandran Ashwin’s (56) helped India post 438 runs in their first innings on the Day 2 of the second Test against West Indies at Queen’s Park Oval, here on Friday.
West Indies made an impressive comeback in the second session bowling out India for 438, as the visitors lost the wickets of Ishan, Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat and Mohammed Siraj. India, who were 373/6 at lunch, scored 65 runs in 20 overs and lost four wickets to finish the innings with 438 at Tea.
Ashwin and Ishan began the second session with a couple of boundaries. But the West Indies struck early in the session, dismissing Ishan for 21.
Ishan got caught behind on the bowling of Jason Holder, who bowled well outside off stump but the left-hander edged it and Joshua Da Silva comfortably took the catch behind the stumps.
Soon after, Ashwin was given LBW out by the umpire but he reviewed it and it eventually turned out to be a good decision as ball tracking revealed that the ball was missing the leg stump by a bare margin.
With an impressive display of elegant and intelligent batting, Ashwin guided India beyond the 400-run mark. Later, Jomel Warrican dismissed Jaydev Unadkat.
Warrican struck again to dismiss Mohd Siraj, leaving India nine down for 426. Then, Ashwin shifted gears and smashed Kemar Roach with two back-to-back boundaries to complete his half-century off 76 balls before falling a delivery later for the score of 56 as India finished with 438.
Earlier, resuming India’s innings at 288/2, Kohli brought up his 29th Test century in the 71st over by hitting a boundary off Shannon Gabriel. Soon after, Jadeja also brought up his 19th Test fifty.
Kohli and Jadeja demonstrated remarkable stability on the crease as the duo stitched 159 runs partnership for the fifth wicket. The stand came to an end when Kohli got run out on his individual score of 121 as West Indies were in desperate need of a breakthrough.
Later, Jadeja got caught behind for 61 on the bowling of Kemar Roach but India were in the driver’s seat as they were 373/6 at lunch.
On Day 1, India had posted 288 for four at stumps. Rohit (80 off 143 balls), Yashasvi Jaiswal (57 off 74) struck half-centuries for the visitors after being sent into bat.
Brief scores: India 1st innings 438 all out (Virat Kohli 121, Ravindra Jadeja 61; R Ashwin 56; Kemar Roach 3/104, Jomel Warrican 3/89) against West Indies.
