It was a gala match at Eden Gardens giving India a historic fifth consecutive Test match win ffor the first time in history, but in terms of cricketing action, it was a bit disappointing considering the poor outing by West Indies. They performed in patches and failed to stitch it together which obviously lead to the failure. On the other hand, a complete team effort from India got the win.
Here is the list of top performers of the first match:
4. Shane Shillingford 55-9-167-6
The West Indian off spinner amused the Indian batsmen with his strong technique and picked up six wickets in the first Innings. His balls turned on both sides and he kept chipping in from Dhawan to Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. He will be looking forward for the match at Wankhede.
3. Ravichandran Ashwin 124(210) and 5 Wickets: Ashwin as always contributed to India’s win but for a change with a bat. He settled in with Rohit Sharma and played an amazing knock to register his second test ton. He also made a record 280 runs partnership with Rohit Sharma for the seventh wicket. A total of five wickets to his tally made the match near perfect to him.
2. Rohit Sharma 177(301): He was expected to perform well this series considering the form and intensity he came in with after the Australian Series. When quick wickets fell at other end, he held up the inning alongside skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin and got India a good lead.
1. Mohammed Shami (17-2-71-4 and 13.1-0-47-5): Rohit Sharma was awarded as the man of the match but according to me this pacer was the top performer of the match. He came in steaming, pitched hard and dismantled the timber arrangements. After picking up 9 wickets, he now holds the record for picking up most number of wickets on debut match.
