India has taken a 1-0 lead in the two test match series against West Indies as the first match at Eden Gardens ended within the first three days. West Indies lost the match by an innings and 51 runs as the hosts wrapped the Caribbean line-up in less than two sessions.
India had a bright start to the day as Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin piled added on some runs with their overnight scores. While Ashwin completed his century within half-an-hour of the start of the day’s play, Sharma also completed his 150 with some solid batting display as India eased on to the 450-run mark. India’s innings did not last too long once Sharma (177) and Ashwin (124) got out to Permaul and Shillingford respectively. India finished their first innings on 453, ahead of Windies’ first innings total by a huge 219 runs.
Chris Gayle opened the batting for the visitors in style reaching 33 in 33 balls before getting out after playing a poor shot to a short ball from Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. Kieran Powell and Darren Bravo played well to ensure that their team reached the 100-run mark without losing any more wicket. But just before the tea-break WI lost two quick wickets in the form of Kieran Powell and Marlon Samuels, thanks to some disciplined bowling from Ashwin and Mohammad Shami. Once they came on to bat in the post-tea session, what the spectators saw was some brilliant display of reverse swing bowling from debutant Shami to which the WI batsmen simply had no answer. Shami had 5 scalps in the second innings and ended with up 9 wickets in the match, best by any Indian bowler on debut.
Rohit Sharma, another debutant and coming from a man-of –the-series performance against Australia in the recently finished one-day series adapted well to the tough situations to rescue India from a critical condition in the first innings and was deservedly adjudged the man-of-the-match.
In spite of such dominating performance from the Indian team, the match will be remembered mostly for being the penultimate test match in Sachin Tendulkar’s career. The packed Eden Gardens crowd gave a standing ovation to the little master as he left the ground for the final time at the Eden gardens. Their was also arrangements on behalf of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) to felicitate Sachin not only on playing his penultimate match at this venue but for his achievements in the game throughout his 24-year long career. It was an emotional farewell to one of the greatest, if not the greatest, personality in the game of cricket from one of the most historic grounds of the world.
Tags: India vs West Indies India wins Kolkata test Ravichandran Ashwin Rohit Sharma Sachin at Eden Sachin Tendulkar
