IND Vs WI, 1st Test: India Complete Rout In 3 Days, Beat West Indies By An Innings And 272 Runs

India bowled out the West Indies for the second time in two days to win the first Test by an innings and 272 runs on Day 3 at Rajkot Saturday.

Forced to follow-on after conceding a 468-run lead, the West Indies batsmen cut a sorry figure again and were bowled out for 196 in 50.5 overs. They were bowled out for 181 earlier in the day.

This is India's biggest innings win. The previous record was an innings and 262 runs win against Afghanistan at Bengaluru early this year.

The match will be best remembered for the emergence of Prithvi Shaw, who announced his arrival in international cricket with a classy hundred on debut, becoming the youngest from the country to do so in Tests. Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja were the other centurions.

Kuldeep Yadav picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests, becoming the second Indian bowler after Bhuvneshwar Kumar to take five-fers in all three formats of the game.

Opener Kieran Powell was the only West Indian batsman to make a significant contribution in the second essay, an entertaining 83 off 93 balls with eight boundaries and four sixes.

While Ravichandran Ashwin (4/37) was the pick of the bowlers in the morning, Kuldeep (5/57) was all over the opposition batsmen in the second innings on way to a maiden five-wicket haul in Tests.

The second and final Test will be played in Hyderabad from October 12-16. The West Indies will have to lift themselves to put up a better performance after being thoroughly outplayed in Rajkot. The absence of captain Jason Holder and pacer Kemar Roach also added to their woes.

The opposition batsmen, who needed to spend time in the middle, seemed to be in a hurry to finish the game. Punishing a loose ball is fine but they went for far too many strokes and paid the price for their recklessness.

Kuldeep thrived on that, mixing it up nicely to fox the batsmen. After he trapped Shai Hope in front for his first wicket, he removed the highly-rated Shimron Hetmyer who went for a wild slog across the line to be caught at the short third man.

He used his googly to send back Sunil Ambris, who stepped out without having any idea of the way the ball will turn.
Earlier, Ashwin produced a brilliant spell as India enforced the follow-on against the West Indies.

The West Indies, resuming their first innings at 94 for six, lasted only an hour and 10 minutes, mainly due to efforts of Roston Chase (53) and Keemo Paul (47) who ended up sharing a 73-run stand.

Ashwin ran through the tail on a pitch offering plenty of turns, ending with four for 37 in 11 overs as the West Indies were all out in 48 overs.

India started with a spin-pace combination of Kuldeep and Mohammad Shami. Surprisingly, Chase and Paul had little difficulty in picking the chinaman, who bowled the first over of the day.

Paul went on the offensive straight away, sweeping Kuldeep for two crisp boundaries. Paul was the aggressor in the partnership but Chase also came up with a few attractive shots.

Paul was comfortable against Kuldeep but had issues dealing with the short ball. Umesh Yadav set the West Indian up nicely before getting rid of him with a perfectly placed bouncer as he mistimed a pull to be caught at midwicket.

Ashwin then removed Chase with a beauty, a flighted ball that turned in viciously to create a big gap between bat and pad before crashing into the stumps, leaving the West Indies at 159 for eight.

Number 10 and 11 were easy meat for Ashwin who sent them back with the away turning ball.

India expectedly enforced the follow-on with less than an hour to go for lunch.

Brief Scores:

India 1st Innings: 649 for 9 in 149.5 overs (Virat Kohli 139, Prithvi Shaw 134, Ravindra Jadeja 100; Devendra Bishoo 4/217).

West Indies: 181 all out in 48 overs (Roston Chase 53, Keemo Paul 47; Ravichandran Ashwin 4/37, Mohammed Shami 2/22) & 196 all out from 50.5 overs (Kieran Powell 83; Kuldeep Yadav 5/57, Ravindra Jadeja 3/35).