Jamaica: Despite losing the toss, Indian pacers Ishant Sharma and Mohammad Shami wrecked havoc with an incisive spell in the first half hour as they redcued the West Indies to 21/3 in 10 overs.
Opting to bat on a lively Sabina Park pitch, openers Kraigg Brathwaite and Rajendra Chandrika found life difficult. Ishant struck twice as many balls to rattle the Windies top-order. Brathwaite fended at a Ishant-lifter only for short-leg Cheteshwar Pujara to hold on to an easy catch.
Darren Bravo was next. Coming in from round the wicket, a fuller delivery from Ishant found the edge of Bravo and Kohli snapped up a sharp catch at second slip to his right.
Two overs later, Shami got into the act as he dismissed Chandrilka (5) with one that left the right-handed batsman late. K.L. Rahul, playing his first match of the series, took a comfortable catch at gully. Marlon Samuels (0*) and Jermaine Blackwood (13*) were at the crease.
Earlier on Friday, skipper Kohli said that his batsmen will have to take more responsibility on a “result-oriented” green wicket laid out for the second Test.
Kohli said the visiting batsmen were good enough to tackle any pace and bounce that the West Indies’ bowlers may produce at Sabina Park and his side would look for a win to go 2-0 up in the four-Test series after winning in Antigua by an innings and 92 runs.
“We are happy the wicket is going to have some bounce and carry. There was decent enough bounce in Antigua for us to exploit whatever help was there. Jamaica is going to be even better. It’s a result-oriented ground and we’re quite excited about it. It’s obviously going to take more application than we showed at Antigua. It’s going to take more responsibility and more concentration by the batsmen to get the job done,” Kohli said.
“We believe that our batsmen are good enough to tackle any pace and bounce that West Indies’ bowlers have. The plan is to go out there and play with the determination and focus that we showed in the first game,” he said.
The Indian skipper said with spinners R Ashwin and Amit Mishra among the runs in the first Test, the batting line-up has more depth. “We’ve got good pace, the bowlers are bowling good areas.
Obviously we need to be wary of the conditions a bit more because it is a ground that is result-oriented,” Kohli said. “Ashwin came good at six, Wriddhiman Saha played well and Amit Mishra got runs too. That just deepens our batting line-up and gives us the same bowling options that are required to take 20 wickets,” he added.
There has not been a draw at Sabina Park since 1998 with India winning by 63 runs on their last visit here in 2011. Talking about Rahul, the Indian skipper said, “Rahul has been in a very good zone. He scored runs in practice games, he scored in Zimbabwe and he had a great IPL season. I think that was the turnaround for confidence as far as he’s concerned.
