Captain Shubman Gill’s tenth Test century and Ravindra Jadeja’s brilliant bowling helped India push West Indies onto the backfoot, raising hopes of another big victory in the second and final Test cricket match on Saturday.
India declared their first innings at 518 runs for five wickets. In response, West Indies reached 140 runs for four wickets by the end of the second day’s play, still trailing India by 378 runs.
India had won the first Test match in Ahmedabad by an innings and 140 runs, and if given the opportunity to enforce a follow-on here, they wouldn’t hesitate. Gill had already signaled his intent to finish the match as quickly as possible by declaring the innings.
The highlights of India’s innings were centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal (175 runs off 258 balls) and captain Shubman Gill (129 not out off 196 balls). Besides these two, Sai Sudharsan (87) scored a half-century.
Left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican (three wickets for 98 runs) was the best bowler for West Indies.
West Indies didn’t have a good start and lost their first wicket early.
Opener John Campbell (10) returned to the pavilion after his powerful sweep shot off Jadeja’s delivery stuck in Sai Sudharsan’s hands. Sudharsan tried to protect himself, the ball hit his right hand and stayed there, leaving the batter surprised.
West Indies fought well for some time in the third session but soon lost three wickets. Jadeja broke their 68-run partnership for the second wicket between Tagenarine Chanderpaul (34) and Alick Athanaze (41) by having Chanderpaul caught by KL Rahul.
Jadeja then dismissed West Indies captain Roston Chase for a duck, catching him off his own bowling. Meanwhile, Kuldeep Yadav dismissed Alick Athanaze. Jadeja finished with three wickets for 37 runs and Kuldeep took one wicket for 45 runs. At stumps, Shai Hope was batting on 31 and Tavin Imlach on 14.
Gill declared India’s first innings when Dhruv Jurel (44 runs off 79 balls) was bowled while trying to pull a delivery from Roston Chase.
Gill had enough time to complete a double century, but scoring big against a weak bowling attack doesn’t hold much significance.
About an hour had passed in the second session when Gill received a signal from the dressing room that it was time to bring the visiting team out to bat.
The Indian captain faced 196 balls, hitting 16 fours and two sixes, and added 102 runs for the fifth wicket with Jurel, who decided to score quickly after lunch. India batted for 44.2 overs on the second day, adding 200 runs to yesterday’s score of 318 for two wickets.
Gill completed his century with a cut shot off Khari Pierre’s delivery that earned him three runs. With his fifth century in the last seven Test matches and a half-century in the previous match, he demonstrated that his batting has improved since becoming captain.
With this, Gill became the second Indian captain to score five centuries in a calendar year. Virat Kohli had achieved this feat twice in 2017 and 2018.
At the start of the day, Jaiswal was unfortunately run out, but Gill’s concentration remained unaffected.
Nitish Kumar Reddy (43 runs off 54 balls) was sent to bat at number five to give him sufficient time at the crease. He scored quickly before becoming Warrican’s third victim, adding 91 runs for the fourth wicket with Gill in 17.1 overs.
Gill played several attractive shots in his innings. When Jayden Seales bowled on middle leg, Gill flicked him to the mid-wicket region. When Justin Greaves was brought into the attack, Gill stepped out and hit his first six over mid-wicket, exploiting the bowler’s lack of pace.
The Indian captain also played a beautiful boundary on the leg side against Anderson Phillip. His on-drive against this fast bowler was spectacular.
Reddy also showcased his skills well. He started with a cover drive off Seales’ delivery and then hit two more boundaries through the slip cordon. After being dropped by Phillip off Warrican’s bowling, he capitalized by hitting a six over long-on against
