India’s opening pair of debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Rohit Sharma struck solid half-centuries and took visitors to 146/0 at lunch, to be on the threshold of taking lead on day two’s play in the first Test against West Indies at Windsor Park, here on Thursday.
It was a terrific first session for India on Day 2 as Jaiswal and Rohit walked off unbeaten on 62 and 68 respectively at lunch. A total of 66 runs were added by the duo in the session during their unbroken opening partnership as India were just four runs away from clinching the lead with all wickets in hand.
Resuming from 80/0, Jaiswal began by leaving deliveries from Jason Holder five times in a row, showing eye-catchy discipline to deliveries outside the off-stump after hitting attacking boundaries on day one.
Holder bowled a tidy spell in the initial part of the session, followed by spinners Rahkeem Cornwall and Jomel Warrican stemming the run-flow as they found some turn to trouble Jaiswal and Rohit while beating their bat on many occasions.
Cornwall in particular found some turn and bounce to pose questions to the Indian batters, and managed to beat Jaiswal too. But those were little hiccups as Jaiswal reached his maiden Test fifty in 104 balls by pulling a short ball from Alzarri Joseph in the gap wide of mid-wicket for four.
With this, Jaiswal became the 13th India opener to score a half-century on Test debut. The boundary from Jaiswal also brought up India’s first 100-run opening stand in 22 innings. Rohit upped the ante by whipping Joseph off his wrists over mid-wicket for six and got an outside edge running past four.
After reaching his 15th Test fifty, Rohit was quick to pounce on a short & wide ball from Jomel Warrican, slicing through point for four. When the spinner bowled a juicy full toss, Rohit danced down to drive through extra cover for another boundary, as India got another session in their favour.
Brief scores: West Indies 150 all out in 64.3 overs lead India 146/0 in 55 overs (Rohit Sharma 68 not out; Yashasvi Jaiswal 62 not out) by four runs.
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