India reach 288/4 vs WI on 1st day of 2nd test, Rohit , Jaiswal equals history

 

The second and final match of the two-Test series between India and the West Indies is being played in Port of Spain.  Batting first after losing the toss, India scored 288 for four by the end of the first day's play.  Virat Kohli is unbeaten on 87 off 161 balls and Ravindra Jadeja on 36 off 84 balls.  The two have shared a partnership of 106 runs in 201 balls so far.

 Team India had a great start.  By lunch, India had scored 121 runs in 26 overs without losing a wicket.  Then Team India was scoring at a run rate of around five.  This was the third time that an Indian team had reached lunch without losing a wicket on the first day on West Indies soil.  Earlier on 21 April 1976, Gavaskar and Anshuman took India to the lunch break without losing a wicket in Kingston.  India then scored 62 runs without losing a wicket till the lunch break on the first day.  At the same time, it happened for the second time on June 10, 2006.  Wasim Jaffer and Sehwag then kept India wicketless by the lunch break on day one in St Lucia and added 140 runs.

 Yashasvi scored 50+ in the second Test in a row.  He scored 171 runs in the last Test played in Dominica.  Yashasvi completed his half-century off 49 balls.  At the same time, captain Rohit played well with him and scored the 15th fifty of his Test career.  Jaiswal played his cuts and pulls with disdain while Rohit was also scoring a lot of runs through pull shots and drives through the off side as both entertained a sparse crowd in the first session. 

However, the Indian innings faltered in the second session after lunch.  Yashasvi got out soon after lunch.  He scored 57 runs in 74 balls with nine fours and one six.  Yashasvi and Rohit put on a 139-run partnership for the first wicket.

It was the second consecutive Test century partnership between the two.  Earlier in the Dominica Test, there was a partnership of 229 runs between the two.  The pair of Rohit and Yashasvi have jointly reached the second position in terms of most consecutive century partnerships as Indian openers in Test cricket.  Indian opening duo Virender Sehwag and Murali Vijay have the most consecutive century partnerships in Test cricket.  The duo shared three consecutive centuries in 2008-09.  Apart from Rohit-Yashwi, Sunil Gavaskar-Farukh Engineer (1973-74), Sunil Gavaskar-Anshuman Gaekwad (1976), Sunil Gavaskar-Arun Lal (1982) and Sadgopan Ramesh and Devang Gandhi (1999) are second only to Rohit-Yashasvi. Rohit-Yashasvi is the second opening pair to score two consecutive centuries in a series. Earlier, Sadgopan and Devang had scored two centuries against New Zealand. It did so in the 1999 Test series.

 Rohit and Yashasvi are joint first in terms of most century partnerships by Indian openers in an away series i.e. test series on foreign soil with two century partnerships.  Before these two, Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan (England, 1979), Virender Sehwag and Akash Chopra (Australia, 2003/04) and Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer (West Indies, 2006) have done it twice each.

 After Yashasvi's dismissal, new number-three Shubman Gill came in to bat.  However, he failed in this number for the second Test in a row.  After dropping Cheteshwar Pujara, India are looking for their new number three.  Shubman himself expressed his desire to become number-three, but he failed again. He scored 10 runs and was caught by Kemar Roach to wicketkeeper Joshua.  In the previous Test in Dominica, Shubman scored just six runs while batting at number-three.

Captain Rohit, who is nearing his century, also lost his wicket to spinner Waricann.  Rohit scored 80 runs off 143 balls with nine fours and two sixes.  Just before tea, Ajinkya Rahane, who was made vice-captain for this series, also lost his wicket.  He also failed in the second test in a row.  Rahane scored eight runs.  He was clean bowled by Shannon Gabriel as the stumps went cartwheeling .  Rahane scored three runs in the last Test in Dominica.

 In the second session ie from lunch to tea, India scored 61 runs in 24.4 overs and lost four wickets.  Ravindra Jadeja joined Virat Kohli in the third session.  He was once again given a chance before Ishan Kishan.  Jadeja capitalized on this opportunity and did not let any wicket fall in the third session.  India scored 106 runs without losing any wicket in 33.2 overs from the third session i.e. from tea to the end of the day's play.

 Meanwhile, Virat Kohli scored his 30th fifty in Test career.  He completed his half century off 97 balls.  By the end of the day, Virat remained unbeaten on 87 and Jadeja on 36.  Virat is just 13 runs away from his 29th Test century and played some glorious cover drives after taking time initially .  Virat will want to make his 500th international match special by scoring a century in this match.  Roach, Gabriel, Warrican and Holder have taken one wicket each for Windies so far.