After bamboozling the West Indies batsmen in the first Test, Indian off-spinner R Ashwin once again wreaked havoc on the hosts as his 18th five-wicket haul and second consecutive one helped the visitors to take command of the match on the first day of the second Test at Jamaica.
He picked up four out of the six wickets to fall in the second session of the second Test as the hosts folded for another low score – 196. Ashwin’s five-wicket haul included the dismissals of Jermaine Blackwood (62), Marlon Samuels (37), Shane Dowrich (5), Jason Holder (13) and Devendra Bishoo (12).
The base of India’s dominance was laid by pacers Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, who reduced the hosts to 7/3 before Ashwin struck just at the stroke of lunch to put the West Indies on the backfoot.
In reply, India got off to a solid start. KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan got the team off to the strong start by putting on a 50-run stand for the first wicket. The partnership ended when Shikhar Dhawan failed to keep a drive down and was caught by Bravo off the bowling of Roston Chase.
Rahul(75) and Cheteshwar Pujara(18) saw off the remaining overs with an unbeaten 39-run stand as India ended the day at 125/1.
Let us see how the twitterati reacted to Ashwin’s superb display:
Fifer no. 18 for #Ashwin on a pace friendly track …no. 1 test bowler for a reason
— Naag (@nagarajsana) July 31, 2016
Only similarity between me & @ashwinravi99 is he is adding wickets to his column and am adding weight at the same pace #ashwin #IndvsWI
— Ash (@ashwinm275) July 30, 2016
Back to back 5wkt haul outside subcontinent!!
Take a bow ?
18th 5wkt haul ?#Ashwin the master #WIvsInd— Dr Rajkumar (@I_Raj13) July 30, 2016
#Ashwin? reaching Legendary status quick and fast #IndvsWI
— Theotonius (@Bantyrokz) July 30, 2016
Flight, turn, drift, dip, guile. Wizardry on show. The magician spins a web! 18th 5-fer in just 62 innings! #Magizhchi ThamizhPride #IndvsWI
— Srini Mama (@SriniMama16) July 30, 2016
More than anything the Indians must thank Windies board for letting Dukes ball to be used in the series. More so Ashwin #IndvsWI
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) July 31, 2016
@ashwinravi99 wickets reached 10 on this series, hope he will put some more wickets in his bags.#Ashwin #IndvsWI @BCCI
— Vino Kumar Ponnu Krishnan (@krishvino) July 30, 2016
Again brilliant bowling from team India wrapped WI for 196. Ashwin takes another fifer.KL Rahul playing sensibly,make it big today! #IndvsWI
— Balu Muralidharan (@BaluMahe) July 31, 2016