India hosted Windies at the SCA Stadium, Rajkot in the first of 2 Tests. The No.1 Test team in the world was as clinical as it gets and pulled off a dominating victory. One would expect India to win comfortably which is exactly what transpired. Virat Kohli & Co. were too good as they didn’t give even a sniff to the opposition.

3 centurions steer India to domination

It started with the Indian skipper winning the toss and batting first on a batting-friendly surface. Shannon Gabriel dealt an early blow to the hosts as KL Rahul departed without scoring in the first over. But from then on, it was all about the debutant Prithvi Shaw. The much-anticipated beginning of the 18-year-old turned out to be a dream come true.

Shaw put up a show of sheer class and scored 134 runs. In the process, he registered himself into several record books. Cheteshwar Pujara and Shaw added 206 runs for the 2nd wicket and took India to a commanding position. Pujara missed out on a century and was sent back by another debutant Sherman Lewis for 86. Shaw’s stay was ended bu Bishoo when the score read 232/3.

The captain Virat Kohli was in the middle and he got into his own pretty quickly. Along with Ajinkya Rahane, he added 105 runs for the 4th wicket. Rahane departed after scoring 41 but Kohli was adamant to get a big score. Rishabh Pant then walked in and enjoyed his time in the middle with the captain.

The duo shared a stand of 133 runs as Kohli brought up his 24th Test ton. Pant was looking set for his 2nd consecutive hundred but got out for 92 in the bid to get there in a hurry. At 470/5, India opted to up the ante and Kohli, in the process, was dismissed by Lewis for 139.

Ravindra Jadeja batted well with the tail and got to his fifty. The Indian team decided to give him an extended run with the bat before declaring. The left-hander obliged and ended up notching up his maiden Test century. At 649/9, India opted to declare the innings having accumulated a mountain of runs on the board.

Windies surrendered with the bat

In the first innings, the visitors got off to a poor start as Mohammed Shami castled Kraigg Brathwaite for 2 in the 3rd over. He went on to claim another wicket soon by getting Kieran Powell out LBW for 1 in his next over. The Windies batsmen looked clueless whether to attack or defend. There was very little resistance shown by them.

The Indian bowlers went on to dismiss 6 wickets by the end of day 2 as the visitors were reeling at 94/6. Roston Chase was the only one who hung in there for a while and scored 53. Keemo Paul’s quickfire 47 kept the innings going for a while. But the Indian bowlers took the remaining wickets in the first session of day 3. Windies were bowled out for 181 and India opted to enforce the follow-on.

Powell went after the bowlers from the beginning in the 2nd innings. He scored at a rate of knots but was running short of partners from the other end. Brathwaite fell to Ashwin while Shai Hope was removed by Kuldeep Yadav. The batsmen were looking to play only one way from that point onwards. They came in, struck a few boundaries and then went back to the pavilion.

Kuldeep exploited the approach from the opposition and bagged his maiden 5 wicket haul in Test cricket. Powell was the top scorer with 83 while the next best was 20 by Chase. While Windies lasted for 48 overs in the first innings, they could add only 2.5 overs more in the next. Ultimately, they were bowled out for 196 just after the Tea break on day 3 as India won by an innings and 272 runs to claim a 1-0 lead.

Match Summary

India won the toss and opted to bat first

India 1st innings: 649/9 in 149.5 overs

Virat Kohli 139 (230), Prithvi Shaw 134 (154), Ravindra Jadeja 100* (132)

Devendra Bishoo 217/4 (54), Sherman Lewis 93/2 (20)

Windies 1st innings: 181/10 in 48 overs

Roston Chase 53 (79), Keemo Paul 47 (49)

Ravichandran Ashwin 37/4 (11), Mohammed Shami 22/2 (9)

Windies 2nd innings (following on): 196/10 in 50.5 overs

Kieran Powell 83 (93), Roston Chase 20 (24)

Kuldeep Yadav 57/5 (14), Ravindra Jadeja 35/3 (12.5)

India won by an innings and 272 runs

Player of the Match: Prithvi Shaw

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