West Indies openers make solid start

Lunch West Indies 80 for 0 (Barath 37*, Brathwaite 35*) v India
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Adrian Barath and Kraigg Brathwaite gave West Indies one of their best batting sessions of the series on the opening day of the final Test against India at the Wankhede Stadium. Their patient effort was only the third West Indian Test half-century opening stand of the year, and bolstered a side that was missing their most experienced batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, due to a calf strain.

After losing the toss, MS Dhoni had hoped moisture in the pitch would help his quick bowlers early on, but both Ishant Sharma and debutant Varun Aaron - taking the place of the rested Umesh Yadav - got little sideways movement. Both bowlers consistently hit the 140kph mark, and though there were a couple of plays-and-misses, West Indies' young openers had few serious alarms. The ball was changed in the fifth over as it went out of shape, but even the newer cherry didn't cause much to discomfort to Barath and Brathwaite.

Spin was introduced as early as the ninth over of the match, with Pragyan Ojha trying to exploit the West Indies' well-documented trouble against the turning ball. He got some extra bounce, and a few deliveries to spin, though not enough to impede West Indies' serene progress.

Both Barath and Brathwaite showcased a tight defence, and there were few flamboyant strokes, with the pair preferring to capitalise on the leg-stump deliveries on offer. The first caution-to-the-wind shot came from the usually stoic Brathwaite, who charged out and swatted R Ashwin's second delivery over midwicket for four in the 19th over. Barath also caned Ashwin for a couple of boundaries a few overs before lunch, but he had been mostly measured in the rest of the session.

Their efforts took West Indies to lunch at 80 for 0, a scoreline Darren Sammy would have gladly accepted when he had won the toss and chosen to bat.