Speedster Ishant Sharma made early inroads with twin blows before Jermaine Blackwood’s run-a-ball 62 as India maintained its stranglehold on West Indies restricting the home team to 88 for four at lunch on the first day of the second cricket Test here on Saturday.
It was Ishant (2/24 in 6 overs) and Mohammed Shami (1/13 in 6 overs), who had the Caribbeans reeling at 7 for 3 before Blackwood played a brilliant counter-attacking innings studded with seven boundaries and four sixes.
He added 81 runs with an unusually subdued Marlon Samuels (14 batting, 71 balls) before being trapped leg-before at the stroke of lunch by Ravichandran Ashwin.
This was after skipper Jason Holder won the toss on a damp pitch and elected to bat first.
West Indies made one change to their line-up, bringing in debutant Miguel Cummins in place of Carlos Brathwaite, while India were forced to make a change as well. Kl Rahul came into the side in place of the injured Murali Vijay.
Ishant and Shami started proceedings for India, and the two bowlers were right on the money from the word go.
Ishant in particular was impressive with his line and length, a marked improvement from the Antigua Test, as he pitched the ball further up and got it to move about.
He also used the bounce on offer, and the rewards came quickly. Kraigg Brathwaite (1) was unable to fend off a short delivery in the 3rd over, lobbing an easy catch to Cheteshwar Pujara at forward short leg.
Off the very next ball, Darren Bravo (0) was forced to fend an incoming delivery and skipper Virat Kohli completed a brilliant diving catch at second slip.
Three overs later, Shami got Rajendra Chandrika (5) to drive, only to find Kl Rahul at gully as West Indies were struggling within the first 30 minutes of play.
Blackwood then joined Samuels in the middle, and suddenly there was a momentum shift as the former brought out his attacking shots. It was in the 11th over that things stepped into high gear, as he smacked Ishant for 14 runs, the last boundary a streaky four that Amit Mishra missed at backward point.
