West Indies vs India, 1st Test, Day 1: Ravichandran Ashwin Registers Five-Wicket Haul As India Dominate West Indies
NDTV
Nursing a bruised ego after WTC final snub last month, Ravichandran Ashwin made the best possible comeback as his 33rd five-wicket haul put India in the driver's seat against a below-par West Indies on the first day of the opening Test.
Nursing a bruised ego after WTC final snub last month, Ravichandran Ashwin made the best possible comeback as his 33rd five-wicket haul put India in the driver's seat against a below-par West Indies on the first day of the opening Test, in Dominica on Wednesday. Ashwin justified his top billing in ICC Test bowlers' ranking with figures of 5 for 60 in 24.3 overs to decimate West Indies for a lowly 150 in 64.3 overs with Ravindra Jadeja (3/26 in 14 overs) beautifully complementing him to make life miserable for the home team batters.
With more than an hour available for batting skipper Rohit Sharma (30 batting, 65 balls) and debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal (40 batting, 73 balls) added 80 runs for the opening stand to bring down first innings deficit to 70 going into second day.
The new pair looked comfortable as there is not much help for the bowlers with Indian skipper hitting his customary 'Nataraja' pull-shot and soothing straight drive. Jaiswal also hardly showed any signs of nerves as he played close to his body for better part of evening.
But the opening day's honours went to Ashwin, whose un-matchable artistry was too much to handle for an under-cooked batting line-up.
Making full use of the slow two-paced track that also offered turn and bounce, Ashwin had reasons to be chuffed as he became third Indian bowler after Anil Kumble (956 wickets) and Harbhajan Singh (711) to complete 700 scalps across formats in international cricket.
