Indian spinners dominate the first day of second warm-up match
Dec 31, 2018 at 2:01 PM
Indian spinners rattled the batting line-up of WICB President’s XI on the day 1 of the second warm-up match at St. Kitts on Thursday.
WICB President’s XI decided to bat first after winning the toss. 13 players (11 batting, 11 fielding) were selected from each side for this three-day match. Indian skipper Virat Kohli rested Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav along with Rohit Sharma. For this match, Mohammad Shami and Shardul Thakur were selected as pacers along with Stuart Binny.
However, WICB President’s XI found themselves in trouble against Indian spinners during the first innings. WICB President’s XI collapsed for just 180 runs. Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin (3/62) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/16) took 3 wickets each while Amit Mishra (2/45) also picked up 2 wickets. Other 2 wickets were shared by Shardul Thakur (1/24) and Stuart Binny (1/8), while Shami (0/19) remained wicket-less in the first innings.
Only 3 WICB President’s XI batsmen crossed 20 run mark. The lower middle order batsman Rahkeem Cornwall was the highest scorer of this innings with 41 run knock. Jermaine Blackwood and opener John Campbell scored 36 and 34 runs respectively. Jadeja bowled Blackwood while Ashwin dismissed Cornwall and Campbell.
However, Wriddhiman Saha kept wicket for most of time in the innings, but KL Rahul took that duty for sometimes during the second session of the day.
In reply, Indians finished the day at 93/3. Openers Murali Vijay (23) and Shikhar Dhawan (9) departed early while Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed on 28 after putting a 50+ partnership (59) with KL Rahul, who remained unbeaten at 30.
Brief Score
WICB President’s XI – 180 (Rahkeem Cornwall 41, Jermaine Blackwood 36, Ravindra Jadeja 3/16)
Indians – 93/3 (KL Rahul 30*, Cheteshwar Pujara 28, Chemar K Holder 1/8)