Kolkata:
Debutent pacer Mohammed Shami scalped four wickets against the West Indies as India started Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series by taking early control of the first Test in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Scorecard: India vs West Indies
At stumps on first day, India were 37/0 with Shikhar Dhawan (21*) and Murali Vijay (16*) still batting at the crease as India trailed the West Indies by 197 runs with all their wickets intact.
Shami claimed four-wicket and gave away 71 in 18 overs as India bundle out Windies for 234 after they opted to bat. Shami’s wickets included Kieran Powell, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin and Sheldon Cottrell.
About 40,000 turned up on the first day, expecting Tendulkar to bat.
Earlier Shami scalped three wickets to dent West Indies middle-order as they were struggling at 192/7 at tea.
Tea break was called for immediately after Shane Shillingford was trapped in front of the wicket by Sachin Tendulkar, Shivnarine Chanderpaul was batting on 23*.
MS Dhoni opted for Shami and gave him the Test cap in place of experienced Ishant Sharma.
Shami was also involved in Darren Bravo's run out as WI committed a harakiri in the middle, losing three wickets in as many overs to tilt the match in favour of India.
It was Shami all the way in the post lunch session as he kept moving the ball, got some reverse swing with the speed gun touching 143kph mark.
Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha got a wicket of West Indies skipper Darren Sammy.
Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar brought Kolkata crowd on their feet when he scalped West Indies batsman Shane Shillingford just before tea.
Dhoni brought in Sachin for the last over before tea and he replied with a wicket. It was a straight flighted delivery which dipped on the right hander. Shillingford comes forward to defend and was hit plumb in front in the 63rd over.
Debutant Indian pacer Mohammed Shami struck twice after lunch to further dent West Indies team during the first Test at Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
First he rattled the middle stump of Marlon Samules in the 44th over and later in the 46th over he uprooted the off stump of Denesh Ramdin with a pace delivery.
Samules who completed his 19th fifty scored 65 runs off 98 deliveries and smashed 13 boundaries including two sixes. While Ramdin scored mere four runs off four balls.
After losing two early wickets against India, West Indies fought back to go into lunch at 107/2 on Day 1.
Marlon Samules (45*) and Darren Bravo (16*) were still batting at the stroke of lunch.
Marlon Samuels' attacking knock helps West Indies to recover from early damage and post 107/2 at lunch on Day 1 of the first Test.
Asked to bowl, the Indian bowlers exploited the early conditions to great effect and removed both the West Indies' openers early.
Samuels showed resilience before attacking Indian spinners and together with steady-looking Darren Bravo rebuilt the West Indies innings with an unbroken 60-run partnership.
The slow and dead Eden turner behaved nothing differently and was uninspiring for the bowlers. The ball stayed low while the odd one rose as India began with Bhuvneshwar and Shami.
Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck early in the innings to claim the wicket of West Indies batsman Chris Gayle. He stayed in his crease and pushed the good length around middle stump delivery - outside off with no footwork. He got a thick edge and Murali Vijay at second slip took the catch.
Gayle scored 18 runs off 32 balls and smashed four boundaries before losing his wicket in the 11th over.
Later in the 15th over debutant Mohammed Shami claimed his first Test wicket in form of Kieran Powell, who scored 28 off 40 balls before being caught by Bhuvneshwar who run backwards from extra cover to complete the catch.
West Indies were 47/2 in 14.2 overs at this stage of the game.
At toss, West Indies captain Darren Sammy elected to bat first against MS Dhoni led Indian team.
This is the 199th and penultimate Test of Sachin Tendulkar's 24 years long career.
Batsman Rohit Sharma and fast bowler Mohammed Shami are the two debutants for Team India.
Rohit got his maiden Test cap, six years after making his ODI debut on June 23, 2007.
For West Indies, pacer Sheldon Cottrell will make his debut in place of Kemar Roach, who is yet to recover from a shoulder problem.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Pragyan Ojha.
West Indies: Darren Sammy (capt), Chris Gayle, Kieran Powell, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dinesh Ramdin, Shane Shillingford, Veerasammy Permaul, Sheldon Cottrell, Tino Best.
