Sharma – Ashwin escalated India – 1st Test vs. West Indies

Nov 7, 2013

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India 6-354 (Rohit Sharma 127*, Ravichandran Ashwin 92*, MS Dhoni 42, Shane Shillingford 4-130) leads West Indies 234 (Marlon Samuels 65, Shivnarine Chanderpaul 36, Mohammed Shami 4-71) by 120 runs with four wickets in hand.

Rohit Sharma continued with his blistering form and powered a ton in his maiden Test while Ravichandran Ashwin gave him nice support at the other end.

The Windies were bowled out for 234 in their first innings and India amassed 354 for the loss of six wickets in 102 overs.

The second day’s play concluded on Thursday, November 6, 2013, at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

Earlier, the hosts went into bat in their first innings at 37 in 12 overs without loss whereas Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay were at the crease at 21 and 16 runs. The off spin bowler of the Caribbeans, Shane Shillingford struck early and got rid of both the openers at 57. The middle order batting of the hosts struggled against Shillingford and they were struggling at 5-83. Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli were gone for 17, 10 and 3 runs respectively.

Rohit Sharma - Maiden Test ton — Rohit Sharma – Maiden Test ton

The debutant Rohit Sharma along with his skipper tried to stabilise the innings while the latter was dropped at 12. They took the score to 156 when Dhoni was caught behind by Denesh Ramdin off Tino Best for 42 and was replaced by Ravichandran Ashwin. The duo never looked back from there and Sharma went past his fifty in the process. Ashwin kept on cruising at the other end and reached his fourth Test fifty as the home side crossed the 234 runs mark in the 70^th over.

The pair was batting superbly and did not provide any chance to the Windies. Rohit Sharma blasted his maiden Test hundred with three consecutive fours in the 91^st over and remained unbeaten for 127 off 228 balls with 1 six and 16 fours. Ravichandran Ashwin was at the other side at 92 from 148 with 10 fours as India piled up 6-354 at stumps.

Shane Shillingford was the highest wicket taker with four whereas Tino Best and Sheldon Cottrell held one wicket each.

Indian has taken a vital lead of 120 runs in the first innings and the bells are ringing for the West Indies to save the match.