West Indies failed to put up a fight in the first test and lost by a comprehensive margin of an innings and 272 runs against India at Saurashtra cricket association stadium in Rajkot. The Windies batsman could just last for 8 sessions and 50.5 in the second innings followed by 48 overs in first innings which clearly indicates their poor technique to play the longest format of the game.
Earlier in the first innings, India lost KL Rahul at the score of just 3 runs before Prithvi Shaw and Cheteshwar Pujara took over and piled up a 206 run stand in just 42 overs to take India to drivers seat. Shaw looked flawless from the first ball and pounched on the loose deliveries by the in-experienced Windies bowling line-up.
He soon reached his maiden test ton in the 33rd over bowled by Keemo Paul to become the second youngest Indian batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to score a century. Shaw(99 balls) also became the third batsman to score fastest century on debut after Shikhar Dhawan(85 balls) and Dwayne Smith(93 balls).
Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja also made the most of the batting friendly condition and went onto score a century to take India’s total to 649/9.
West Indies innings
The Caribbean batsman never looked in the game as they lost their top 5 batsman under 50 runs. Keemo Paul(47) and Roston Chase(53) showed some resistance down the order but that was not enough to stop the Indian bowlers huddle them out on 181 runs in the first innings.
India captain Virat Kohli decided to force the follow-on and invited Windies batsman to bat again. Indian bowlers took just over 5 hours to bowl out the West Indian batsman and still looked fresh. The visitors showed some fighting spirit in the second innings as openers Kraigg Brathwaite and Kieran Powell looked aggressive from the start and hit Ashwin and Kuldeep for some sixes. Ashwin removed Braithwaite(10) and since then it was all Kuldeep Yadav show as he bagged a fifer and went through the Windies middle-order.
Kieran Powell(83) stuck to one corner and played some impressive shot that entertained a half-filled stadium in Rajkot. His resistance was broken by Kuldeep Yadav as India came close to win the first test.
Lower order failed to make any impact in the match as the duo of Ashwin and Jadeja went through it and Windies got bundled out on 196/10.
Debutant Prithvi Shaw was adjudged the man of the match.
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