Fast bowler Mohammed Shami’s second-innings five-wicket haul capped India’s emphatic innings and 51-run triumph over the West Indies on day three of the first Test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday.
Shami ended the game with nine scalps as he helped the hosts demolish the Windies just after tea, with the visitors finding themselves all out for 168, after being 234 all out in the first innings. India had made 453 all out in their one innings.
Play began on day three with India on 354 for six, with Rohit Sharma on 127 and Ravichandran Ashwin on 92. The pair scored the bulk of the runs for the rest of the morning, with the final three wickets falling for 23 runs.
Sharma was the first to fall, having made 177, falling short of making his second double ton in two knocks for India. He was trapped LBW by Veerasammy Permaul, who also took the final wicket of the innings, that of Shami.
Ashwin, meanwhile, went on to record his second Test century, and in the end made 124 off 210 balls before becoming one of Shane Shillingford’s six wickets. At the end of the knock, India held a lead of 219 runs.
The Windies innings began with Chris Gayle making all of the 33 runs in the opening stand, before he departed to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, caught by Virat Kohli. Kieran Powell and Darren Bravo then pushed the score to 101 before Powell was trapped in front by Ashwin.
Wickets then tumbled from there, as Shami got in on the act. He bagged Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy and Shillingford in quick succession, with a run out by MS Dhoni adding to the collapse as the Windies lost three wicket with the score on 152.
Sheldon Cottrell was the final wicket of the match, to Shami to give him his ninth, clean bowled for five to wrap up the match two days early and set the minds ahead to Mumbai for Tendulkar’s finale.
