After India declared their first innings at 421 for 5, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin each claimed a wicket to put West Indies in trouble. At the start of the third day’s tea break, Raymon Reifer and Jermaine Blackwood’s West Indies team had a score of 27 for 2.
Following the fourth over of the innings itself, Rohit Sharma had Ashwin and Jadeja working together on a pitch that favored spinners. Kraigg Brathwaite’s outside edge was promptly forced by Jadeja, but it was dropped by Ishan Kishan. For a while, Jadeja could be stopped, but not for long. As soon as he began bowling, he struck, lbw’ing Tagenarine Chanderpaul for seven.
It took 30 deliveries for Brathwaite to reach his maiden run before Ashwin squared him up from behind the wicket and had him caught at first slip.
West Indies had a few disadvantages when they got their innings going in the morning as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli continued India’s innings from 312 for 2.
Having left the pitch for 28 minutes prior to the end of last night’s match, Alzarri Joseph was unable to start the bowling. After leaving the field with a chest illness before day two’s lunch hour, Rahkeem Cornwall was also prohibited from bowling for two hours.
Even on the ground that was getting slower with each over, Jaiswal appeared fluid. He picked up his first boundary of the day with an on-drive off Jason Holder because he felt at ease driving on the seamers up against him. After Shikhar Dhawan (187) and Rohit Sharma (177), he became the third Indian to score 150 or more on his first-ever Test match three balls later.
Once he was qualified to bowl, Joseph took Holder’s place. Jaiswal was now aiming for an immediate score. Before sprinting down the pitch and launching Jomel Warrican for a straight six, he uppercut Joseph over backward point for four to surpass Kohli’s 100-run partnership.
When Jaiswal attempted to punch off his back foot, Joseph drew his length back, bowled him five consecutive dot balls, and on the sixth, had him caught behind.
Ajinkya Rahane fell for three runs after failing to take into account the slowness of the field and chipping Kemar Roach’s opening delivery of the day to cover.
When Warrican got Kohli to push obstinately into extra cover in the sixth over of the day, West Indies had a chance to get rid of him, but Brathwaite dropped the catch. At the time, Kohli had an average of 40 and had to fight hard for each run. His third slowest half-century in Test cricket came after 147 balls, which ranked him.
Around 25 minutes before lunch, Brathwaite deployed Alick Athanaze from one end and himself from the other, which made scoring runs a little bit easier. During that period, Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja each scored a few goals to push India over the 400-point mark.
Kohli was given another reprieve on 72 just after lunch. Joshua Da Silva couldn’t hold on to the opportunity despite his one-handed diving effort as he drove away from the body and edged Roach behind the stumps. At 76, Kohli finally put a stop to his innings by flicking Rahkeem Cornwall to leg slip.
Ishan Kishan took a while to open his account, just like the other debutant Jaiswal. Kishan hit the target on ball 20, while Jaiswal had done so off the 16th ball. Kishan’s maiden run was scored, and Rohit immediately called the innings over.
Tea: West Indies 150 and 27 for 2 (Reifer 7*, Blackwood 4*) trail India 421 for 5 dec (Jaiswal 171, Rohit 103, Kohli 76) by 244 runs