An old adage goes – Never judge a pitch until both teams have batted on it. The same surface which appeared to be infuriatingly harmless turned into a land mine when the Indian bowlers ripped through the West Indies batting lineup during the third day of the opening Test at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
Mohammed Shami continued from where he left off in the previous day through another relentless spell. Extracting bounce with his slippery pace, he demolished the hosts’ top-order who did not help themselves by playing loose shots.
Fellow speedster Umesh Yadav also bowled viciously to take out the lower-order as West Indies were bowled out for 243. Apart from Kraigg Brathwaite and Shane Dowrich, none of the other batsmen put up a fight.
Having enforced the follow on, the visitors saw the back of Brathwaite once again to retain total control. Let us take a look at the most important statistics from the day’s play.
2 – The 69-run stand between Jason Holder and Dowrich was only the second partnership of over 50 runs for West Indies at home in 41 possible combinations. Incidentally, the skipper was also involved in the last one alongside seamer Kemar Roach.
4 – Previous record for the most number of dismissals in an innings by an Indian glovesman against West Indies in the Caribbean. Wriddhiman Saha went past MS Dhoni and Kiran More.
6 – Consecutive innings wherein the West Indies openers did not manage fifty-plus scores at home. Not surprisingly, Kraigg Brathwaite was the one who had formerly scored 116 against England in Grenada.
6 – Dismissals for Saha which is the joint-most by an Indian wicket-keeper in an innings alongside Syed Kirmani (1976 against New Zealand in Christchurch) and Dhoni (2009 against New Zealand in Wellington).
9 – Kraigg Brathwaite’s average in his previous six innings at home, before the 218-ball 74 today. Only 54 runs had come from those innings including two ducks.
13 – Tests taken by Shami to take 50 wickets which is the joint-quickest for an Indian fast bowler with Venkatesh Prasad. When spinners are also taken into account, his team-mate Ravichandran Ashwin leads the list having taken only nine matches to reach the milestone.
14 – Instances when West Indies have been bowled out for less than 250 out of their last 25 innings.
22 – Consecutive innings for West Indies without an opening partnership of 50 or more. Their last such stand was against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in December 2014.
70 – Highest score in Test matches for wicket-keeper batsman Dowich which was achieved against Australia at Dominica. Having been left stranded, the 24-year old fell short of his career-best by just 13 runs.
2006 – The previous occasion when West Indies were asked to follow on in a home Test which was also against India at Gros Islet. Overall, there have been only eight such instances for them versus all teams in the Caribbean.
3009 – Runs scored by Darren Bravo in his Test career from 43 matches. He became the 24th West Indian cricketer to breach the 3000-run mark.
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