Hours after criticising the quality of the SG balls, India pacer Umesh Yadav starred with the ball to help the hosts fold out West Indies early on day two. The right-arm pacer picked up 6 for 88 as India bowled out the visitors for 311.
Umesh picked up all the three wickets to fall on day 2. West Indies began the day on 295 for 7. Umesh gave India a flying start by striking in the very first over. The pacer got one to take the inside edge of Devendra Bishoo’s bat and crash into the off stump to give India the perfect start.
Umesh then accounted for Roston Chase who reached his century in the second over of the day after resuming on 98. West Indies innings didn’t last long as they added 14 runs to their overnight score with Shannon Gabriel bagging a first ball duck. The three-wickets on day two and as many on the first helped Umesh pick up his career-best figures. Umesh’ previous best figures came against Australian in the 2012 Perth Test when he picked up 5 for 93.
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With this effort, Umesh Yadav became the first Indian pacer since 2000 to pick up 6 wickets in an innings.
Javagal Srinath was the last Indian bowler to pick up 6 wickets in an Test innings. He had picked up 6 for just 27 against New Zealand in Mohali in 1999.
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Umesh Yadav (L) with Virat Kohli (India vs West Indies, Credits: AP)Meanwhile, at the end of day one, Umesh had slammed the quality of the SG balls and had said that picking up wickets with old SG balls is tough.
“What happens with SG balls is that they become soft after 20 overs so the batsmen coming later don’t face much difficulty. So tailenders know that it will neither swing nor reverse. You just have to wait for something to happen and keep trying. But you can’t really do it on such a big ground, the ones and twos keep coming,” Umesh had said at the end of Day one.
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