Ishant's fifer saw windies struggling at 189-8 on 2nd day of 1st test
Saturday, 24 August 2019 (14:56 IST)
North Sound: Ishant Sharma took 5/42 as West Indies finished the second day of the first Test against India on 189/8, trailing the visitors' first-innings total by 108 runs.
Ishant began his day by offering Ravindra Jadeja valuable support at the crease with the bat before starring with the ball, taking his ninth five-wicket haul in Test cricket to help push India into a dominant position in the Test match.
Rishabh Pant and Jadeja were the batting pair to start India's day, but Pant departed early, edging to Jason Holder in the slip cordon for 24. Nevertheless, West Indies' hopes of rolling over the tail quickly were dampened by a spirited eighth-wicket partnership between Jadeja and Ishant.
Together the pair put on a crucial stand on 60, Ishant surviving for 61 balls before
Shannon Gabriel castled him from the 62nd. Jadeja battled on, however, going to an
11th Test half-century before he was the final wicket to perish, falling for 58 to Holder.
India went to lunch having put 297 on the board.
John Campbell enjoyed a racing start, strolling to 23 in quick time, but Mohammed
Shami intervened from the final ball of his first over, firing the ball in to rattle the
left-hander's stumps.
Kraigg Brathwaite fell victim to an excellent return catch from Ishant and debutant
Shamarh Brooks was out 16 balls later, his cut shot lobbing off Pant's foot to Rahane
at slip to leave West Indies 50/3.
Darren Bravo and Roston Chase kept things ticking over, and Bravo appeared to
make a statement of intent with a crushing six off Jadeja. But Jasprit Bumrah, playing
his first international since the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, ended Bravo's stay,
pinning him on his pads as he shifted across his stumps.
Chase looked set for his eighth Test half-century but the excellent Ishant outfoxed
him, getting the right-hander to chip a catch into the perfectly positioned KL Rahul
at midwicket.
Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope, West Indies' two young batting hopes began to
wrestle back the initiative but Ishant came into his own in the evening. He nabbed
Hope's edge with a ball that moved away slightly from the right-hander, and his
fourth arrived soon after, Hetmyer chipping one back to Ishant to give the bowler
his second caught-and-bowled of the day.
Roach lasted just three balls as he pushed his bat forward only to send the ball
into the safe hands of Virat Kohli in the slips. Ishant had five and West Indies had
