Jasprit Bumrah left West Indies spellbound in the final innings of the first Test, registering figures of 5 for 7. He fired the ball on the off-stump, sending it to a cartwheel on four occasions. Had it not been for Kemar Roach’s blistering 31-ball 38, West Indies would not have managed 100 all out from 50 for 9.
In West Indies’ first innings, Ishant Sharma had taken a five-wicket haul. His spell was of a different nature: he bowled in the corridor of uncertainty and aimed for outside edges.
Kemar Roach too had his moments, but it was Roston Chase’s off-spin that had India in trouble. He bowled in the right channel and waited relentlessly for the Indian batsmen to commit mistakes. One of his victims was the No. 1 batsman in Tests, Virat Kohli, who tried to close the face of the bat despite being set on 51. However, India’s both innings were decorated with Ajinkya Rahane’s class-apart batsmanship. He fell on 81 in the first essay, but made sure he reaches the three-figure mark in the second. It was his first hundred in 2 years.
While Rahane held one end up, Vihari made sure he scales up the run rate and put West Indies to bat as soon as possible, although he will be regretting the fact that he missed his maiden Test hundred by a mere 7 runs.
None of the batsmen from the West Indian camp scored a fifty. Roston Chase’s 48 was the highest.
Brief scores:
India 297 (Rahane 81, Jadeja 58, Roach 4/66) & 343 for 7 dec. (Rahane 102, Vihari 93, Chase 4/132) beat West Indies 222 (Chase 48, Holder 39, Ishant 5/43) and 100 (Roach 38, Bumrah 5/7, Ishant 3/31) by 318 runs.