Ravichandran Ashwin’s seven-wicket second innings demolition job underlined his utter dominance of an inept West Indies team who crashed to defeat by an innings and 141 runs late on the third day of the first Test against India in Dominica on Friday.
It was India’s largest margin of victory in a Test match in the West Indies and maintains an unbeaten run spanning more than 21 years against these opponents going into the second and final Test starting next Thursday in Trinidad.
After Rohit Sharma declared the tourists’ first innings closed at 421 for five, 40 minutes into the afternoon session, first day destroyers Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja wasted little time in adding to that first innings success to skittle the Caribbean team for 130 in just over 50 overs.
Ashwin fittingly ended the match by trapping last man Jomel Warrican leg-before.
His haul of 7-71 lifted his match figures to 12-131 – his eighth match haul of 10 wickets or more in Tests – while the support of Jadeja kept relentless pressure on a home side technically and temperamentally incapable of coping with such quality spin bowling on a helpful pitch.
Debutant Alick Athanaze was again the top scorer with 28 but his effort paled in comparison to his Indian counterpart as opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal led the way in India’s only innings with a determined, dedicated innings of 171 which spanned more than eight hours and occupied 387 deliveries.
That effort earned him the man of the match award notwithstanding the fantastic bowling figures of Ashwin.
“This experience has been a special moment,” said the 21-year-old left-hander. “I used to think about playing for my country when I was young. It is an emotional moment for me but this just the start.”
‘Let ourselves down’
For West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite, the emotions were the exact opposite on a forgettable day personally and for his team.
“I didn’t think it spun a lot early on, we just let ourselves down with the bat,” said the opener, a comment which immediately raised a few eyebrows given how the pitch behaved virtually from the first session.
“Senior guys, starting with myself, have to lead the way. We have to use the bat more instead of our pads.”
As on day one, Brathwaite and opening partner Tagenarine Chanderpaul had to cope with spin just minutes into the start of the second innings and although he was dropped on nought, Ashwin eventually put him out of his misery. He had missed a straightforward chance at short extra-cover in the morning offered by Virat Kohli off left-arm spinner Warrican.
Dropped at 40, Kohli went on to get 76 before falling to Rahkeem Cornwall just after lunch. The burly off-spinner was only allowed to bowl after the morning period because of time spent off the field on the first day when he was unwell.
Earlier, West Indies finally prised out Jaiswal and added the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane pre-lunch.
Jaiswal was finally undone by the extra pace and bounce extracted by fast bowler Alzarri Joseph in edging a catch to wicketkeeper Joshua da Silva after an hour’s play.
