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The mixture of youth and experience yielded benefits for India as debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal scored his maiden Test century on Thursday to put India on the front foot against the West Indies in the second day of the 1st Test.
He was ably supported by skipper Rohit Sharma who was batting at 89. Jaiswal got to his ton in 215 balls and 11 boundaries. The dominant duo’s performance also ensured that this became the highest opening partnership for India in the West Indies.
Earlier, Jaiswal displayed perfect composure and admirable temperament with a well-compiled half-century as Indian openers were in control, taking the score to for 146 for no loss at lunch.
Skipper Sharma also curbed his natural stroke-making instinct for the better part to reach his 15th half-century in Test cricket as India are only four runs short of West Indies’ first innings score of 150.
The Windsor Park pitch got even slower on the day with most of the deliveries stopping and coming onto the bat.
Only 66 runs were scored during the session as Indian batters didn’t take any undue risks and batted in an unhurried manner against an insipid Caribbean attack that didn’t score much on potency quotient.
The two spinners — offie Rahkeem Cornwall (0/22 in 11 overs) and left-arm orthodox Jomel Warrican (0/34 in 14 overs) bowled tight lines but didn’t bowl too many wicket-taking deliveries.
The lack of pace off the track also made it easier for Indian openers to defend.
Jaiswal, who started the day on 40, struck his first boundary on Friday that got him to his half-century, which was also a vindication of the team management’s decision to promote him at the top on debut.
It was a pull shot off Alzarri Joseph (0/42 in 8 overs), whose bowling lacked sting during that first session.
Jaiswal now have seven boundaries in his knock so far with six coming in the first evening while Rohit has six fours and two sixes The old Dukes ball also didn’t offer much reverse swing and Rohit’s flick off Joseph to get a six over mid-wicket was the best shot of the morning.
He also rocked on back-foot and hit a square cut off Jomel Warrican and punched his full-toss through the covers after a quiet first hour.
With so much time left in the match, the Indians are rightly aiming to bat West Indies out of the game as it will get very difficult to bat in the third innings on a worn out track.
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