Shami, Yadav pile on the misery for West Indies

Mohamed Shami snared two more wickets and Umesh Yadav grabbed his first victim as the West Indies crashed to 157 for seven replying to India’s first innings total of 566 for eight declared at tea on the third day of the first Test yesterday.
Opener Kraigg Brathwaite was the only batsman to defy the Indian assault for any protracted period but his was the last wicket to fall before the interval.
Unable to get his bat out of the way of a sharp lifter from Yadav, he fell for 74, giving wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha his fifth dismissal of the innings.
Yadav had claimed his first wicket of the innings just a few minutes earlier when he ended the brief defiance of Roston Chase, the debutant miscuing an attempted pull when on 23 and giving a simple catch to Indian captain Virat Kohli at short midwicket.
His dismissal ended a 47-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Brathwaite and held up India’s progress for just over an hour when it appeared they would have ripped through the rest of a suspect batting line-up just after lunch.
That was when Shami, in the midst of an inspired spell of bowling, removed Marlon Samuels and Jermaine Blackwood in the same over to have the West Indies tottering at 92 for five.
Having dismissed Darren Bravo just before lunch to a catch at the wicket, Shami then drew Samuels into a careless waft outside the off-stump for Saha to take another catch and extend the experienced batsman’s wretched form in Tests since the tour of Sri Lanka nine months earlier.
Blackwood was then surprised by the extra pace and bounce of the bowler’s fourth delivery to him and Rahane held the comfortable catch at gully to send the batsman back to the pavilion without scoring.  At that stage, the West Indies had lost four wickets for 24 runs either side of the lunch interval.
In contrast to the afternoon rout, India were made to work hard for early success at the start of the day as Brathwaite and nightwatchman Devendra Bishoo defied the efforts of all five frontline bowlers for 75 minutes.
Amit Mishra got the breakthrough, the leg-spinner luring Bishoo into the sweep shot and Saha effecting the sharp stumping the batsman marginally out of his ground.
 Real hopes for prolonged resistance rested heavily on the shoulders of Brathwaite and new batsman Bravo.

SCOREBOARD AT TEA

India 1st innings: 566 for 8 decl (V. Kohli 200, R. Ashwin 113, S. Dhawan 84, A. Mishra 53)
West Indies 1st innings: (Overnight: 31-1)
K. Brathwaite c Saha b U. Yadav            74
R. Chandrika c Saha b Shami             16
D. Bishoo st Saha b Mishra             12
Da. Bravo c Saha b Shami                   11
M. Samuels c Saha b Shami               1
J. Blackwood c Rahane b Shami        0
R. Chase c Kohli b U. Yadav                23
S. Dowrich not out                               6
J. Holder not out                                  9
Extras (lb-2 nb-2 w-1) 5
Total (for 7 wickets, 72 overs) 157
Fall of wickets: 1-30 R. Chandrika,2-68 D. Bishoo,3-90 Da. Bravo,4-92 M. Samuels,5-92 J. Blackwood,6-139 R. Chase,7-144 K. Brathwaite To bat: C. Brathwaite, S. Gabriel
Bowling:  I. Sharma 17 - 6 - 34 - 0(nb-2) U. Yadav 14 - 7 - 26 - 2 M. Shami 17 - 4 - 41 - 4(w-1) R. Ashwin 12 - 3 - 36 - 0 A. Mishra 12 - 4 - 18 - 1