Cricket Highlights, 17 July: West Indies vs India (1st Test)

West Indies vs India (1st Test)

Like the first innings, Ravichandran Ashwin played a key role with the ball in the second innings as well. His fiery spells propelled the host West Indies to get knocked out of the match. Ashwin’s spin magic helped visiting India best the first Test against the Caribbean by an innings and 141 runs.

India and West Indies faced off on the third day of the Dominica Test on Friday (July 14). On this day, India declared their first innings for 421 runs. The second innings of the Windies ended by scoring just 130 runs. The team scored 150 runs in the first innings. And with that, India won the game by a big margin & innings.  

Ashwin picked up 12 wickets with the ball in two innings. As a result, he alone made the difference in the match. This spinner scalped 5 wickets in the first innings and 7 wickets in the second innings. And Yashasvi Jaiswal has made the team’s victory easier with the bat. In his debut match, this Indian cricketer played an excellent innings of 171 runs. 

Batting in their first innings, two openers Rohit Sharma and Jaiswal took the game out of the Caribbean’s grasp. The two openers put together a huge partnership of 229 runs. This is India’s highest opening pair on West Indies soil since 2002. The previous one was made by Sanjay Bangar and Virender Sehwag (202). India got a lead of 79 runs with the pair of Rohit-Jaiswal.

Jaiswal became the 17th Indian batsman to score a century on debut. However, apart from Jaiswal, captain Rohit scored a century. But the Indian skipper could not extend his innings after the century. He returned to the dressing room scoring 103 runs off 221 balls with 10 fours and 2 sixes. Earlier, Rohit also scored a hundred in his Test debut.  

But on the other hand, Jaiswal played a buoyant innings of 171 runs off 387 balls. There were 16 fours and 1 six. Besides Shubman Gill scored 6 runs. However, Virat Kohli was on fire with the bat. He scored 76 runs before returning to the pavilion. On the other hand, Ravindra Jadeja remained unbeaten with 37 runs.

In total, India scored 421 runs for 5 wickets in their first innings. Earlier, Ashwin and Jadeja restricted the Caribbeans to just 150 runs in the first innings. Kraigg Brathwaite’s team trailed by 271 runs as India declared.  

In response, West Indies started batting at a snail’s pace in the second innings. Two openers, Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Brathwaite scored only 7 runs in the first 9 overs. But despite playing at a slow pace, the hosts did not benefit. They started losing wickets at regular intervals from the tenth over. One by one, 4 batters returned to the dressing room for 32 runs.

As a result, instead of overtaking the lead given by India, they had to face defeat by an inning. The team could not even score the runs of the first innings on the scoreboard when they came down to bat for the second time. In the end, the hosts lost all their wickets after scoring 130 runs in 50.3 overs.  

The Caribbeans’ innings would have been over much earlier, but it didn’t take place for the debutant Alick Athanaze’s 28 and Jason Holder’s unbeaten 20 runs, who were holding the wicket at the end. Ashwin picked up seven wickets alone giving 71 runs for the Men in Blues.

Besides, Jadeja took 3 wickets in the first innings and took 2 wickets in the second innings. The visitors won the Dominica Test with the spinning magic of this spinning duo. Jaiswal scored 171 runs in the debut match and was adjudged player of the match. The second and final Test match between India and West Indies will start on July 20.

West Indies vs India Scoreboard

West Indies (1st Innings) – 150/10 (64.3)

India (1st Innings) – 421/5 (D) (152.2)

West Indies (2nd Innings) – 130/10 (50.3)

Result – India won by an innings & 141 runs

Player of the match – Yashasvi Jaiswal

Yashasvi Jaiswal

West Indies vs India Playing Xis