Hyderabad, The West Indies were struggling at 197/6 in their first innings at tea on the opening day of the second cricket Test against India here on Friday.
Opting to bat, the visitors lost wickets at regular intervals. Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav caused a lot of problem for the West Indies batsmen on his way to figures of 3/18. Fast bowler Umesh Yadav boasted figures of 2/60 while off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin also bagged a wicket.
At the break, Roston Chase was batting on 50 with Jason Holder (10) at the other end.
Roston’s 69-run stand with Shane Dowrich during the post-lunch session was the only bright phase of the West Indies batting effort. But Umesh trapped Shane leg before with a sharp inswinger to break the partnership a short while before tea.
Earlier, West Indies wasted a steady start to slip to 86/3 at lunch. Shimron Hetmyer (10 not out) went back undefeated after pacer Umesh Yadav removed Shai Hope (32) just at the stroke of lunch, thus ending the flourishing 34-run third wicket stand.
Electing to bat after winning the toss, the tourists made amends for their lacklustre batting effort in the first Test at Rajkot, with openers Kraigg Brathwaite (14) and Kieran Powell (22) showing a lot of promise in their brief 32-run partnership.
India were handicapped early in the innings with debutant pacer Shardul Thakur injuring his groin midway into his second over and walking off before off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin completed the over.
Forced to deal with spin as early as the fourth over of the innings, the Windies openers played cautiously before Powell in an attempt to cut loose, ended up mistiming a chip shot to Ravindra Jadeja at cover.
Sensing Windies’ vulnerability against quality spin, India skipper Virat Kohli brought Kuldeep Yadav into the attack, and the chinaman responded in his very fifth over by trapping Brathwaite plumb in front.
The fall of Brathwaite brought together Hope and Hetmyer, who started rebuilding the innings with grit before once again running out of patience as they approached the lunch break.
Brought back for another short spell, moments before the break, Umesh managed to break the stand with the wicket of Hope, who survived once against the same bowler, but wasn’t lucky for the second time as the visitors lost both their reviews.
Brief scores:
West Indies (1st innings): 197/6 (Roston Chase 50, Jason Holder 10; Kuldeep Yadav 3/18, Umesh Yadav 2/60) vs India.
