Ashwin, Sehwag give India edge

India 209 and 152 for 2 (Sehwag 55) need 124 to beat West Indies 304 and 180 (Chanderpaul 47, Sammy 42, Ashwin 6-47)
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	I'll have five, and then some: R Ashwin during his match-turning spell in his debut Test © AFP Enlarge
Related Links Matches: India v West Indies at Delhi Series/Tournaments: West Indies tour of India Teams: India | West Indies

Smart stats R Ashwin's 9 for 128 is the second-best match haul for an India bowler on debut behind Narendra Hirwani's 16 for 136 in Madras in 1988. Ashwin also becomes the fifth India spinner and the seventh India bowler overall to pick up a five-wicket haul on Test debut. His second-innings figures of 6 for 47 are third behind Hirwani's twin eight-wicket hauls in 1988. If India are to win the first Test, they have to equal the record fourth-innings chase in Delhi, by West Indies in 1987. On that occasion, West Indies chased the 276-run target with the help of Viv Richards' unbeaten 109. Virender Sehwag scored a half-century in both innings for the fifth time in his career. It is also the 30th time that an India batsman has made a fifty-plus score in both innings against West Indies. There have been ten leg-before dismissals in the game so far. On eight previous occasions, there have been more leg-before dismissals in Tests in India. Tendulkar reached the 15,000-run landmark in Tests in his 182nd match. He has now scored 15005 runs at an average of 56.19.

R Ashwin's six wickets, which gave him the second-best match haul for an Indian debutant, and quick runs from Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Darren Sammy pulled the game in opposite directions to leave it in a state of delicate balance. India were left with 276 to get for a first win in seven Tests, which if managed would be their third-highest successful chase. Virender Sehwag then rudely shook the balance with his sixth half-century in chases, but Sammy pulled West Indies back with Sehwag's wicket, only for two highest run-getters in Test cricket and its fourth innings, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, to give India the edge with an assured partnership before stumps.

India had every reason to feel good about the chase: they had built some momentum, and only one of the 10 wickets to fall in the day was a direct consequence of the pitch's misbehaviour. The first session of the day, though, looked like the continuation of an exercise in making the Kotla pitch look brutish. India had started it yesterday, losing 10 wickets for 120 runs, and on this slow track with low but manageable bounce, West Indies found a way to lose four wickets in the first hour today. It could have been three wickets in the first three overs, but Ishant Sharma was denied one by the umpire and Ashwin failed to catch a half chance.

The beneficiaries, Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo, added 27 for the fourth wicket. Edwards played positively, hitting three fours in the first four overs of spin, but for some reason he chose to leave alone a straight delivery to give Umesh Yadav his maiden Test wicket. More uncertain cricket followed. Bravo thrust his pad forward to Ashwin and was trapped by one that didn't turn as much as expected. Ashwin then cleaned up Marlon Samuels with one of his first carrom balls in Test cricket. He uses that variation regularly in limited-overs cricket, but had hardly done it on Test debut until he got through the defence of Samuels.

A familiar thorn in the side remained, though. Chanderpaul began with two fours off the first two balls he faced, using his wrists on both occasions to manipulate the off-side field. First he rolled them on the cut shot to beat the squarish third man, and then he pushed through a length ball, placing it to the left of point. Despite Carlton Baugh's careless dismissal, Chanderpaul kept scoring unaffected.

With an aggressive Sammy for company, Chanderpaul threatened serious damage. Ashwin, though, interrupted him three runs short of a fifty with an offbreak that didn't turn as much as he expected. It was a brave lbw decision by Rod Tucker, as this was bowled from over the wicket and pitched within the stumps, but proved to be correct because of the small degree of turn. Sammy, though, continued to exploit the open field sets for him. He found the gaps for couples, hit a four with the field up, and in the most Caribbean of fashions drove Ishant for a six even with the field back. It took a straight Ashwin delivery that stayed low to get rid of Sammy, the first signs of the pitch playing unmanageable tricks. Ravi Rampaul and Devendra Bishoo didn't throw it away, and added 23 for the last wicket.

Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir came out aggressive. A potentially game-changing moment arrived in the fourth over, when Sehwag was a touch early into a straight-drive, but Rampaul couldn't take the tough return catch to his right. India took 23 off the first four overs, but it would become challenging when pace was taken off.

Sammy did so as early as the fifth over, and the openers went into singles mode. Sehwag, though, didn't like the sight of Samuels' offspin that early in the innings, and drove him over extra cover for six. Even though Samuels came back with Gambhir's lbw, Sehwag continued to beat the slowness of the pitch. The fields were spread, the ball didn't come on, but Sehwag adjusted superbly to score behind square on the off side. The quicker balls he guided past slip, for the slower ones he arched back and used the wrists to impart power. Three of his five fours he hit there.

He did not hit everything behind square. He lofted Bishoo, the opposition's only specialist spinner, for a six over long-on in his first over. Quietly Dravid slipped into positive mode, too, driving two boundaries through midwicket and extra cover before Sehwag managed to reach a score of fifty in both innings of a match for only the fifth time in his career.

A typical slow-pitch dismissal followed when Sehwag chopped Sammy on. More control and interrogation was a natural expectation. Immediately West Indies bowled the first maiden of the innings. They could now have some control over where they bowled, but Tendulkar and Dravid remained resolute. Tendulkar avoided playing across the line, and made positive forward movements every time he could. Dravid scored only 17 off the last 73 balls he faced, and the partnership was worth only 57 off 25.5 overs, but the two were desperate to stay unbeaten in fading light, which they managed.

Just about. For two overs before stumps, running in classical Indian style, Dravid crossed the stumps without grounding his bat or his feet. A lazy bail and inconclusive replays saved him there, after which he berated himself. The reaction would have been much more severe had he been given out.

Windies get the better of 17-wicket day

West Indies 304 (Chanderpaul 118, Brathwaite 63, Ojha 6-72, Ashwin 3-81) and 21 for 2 (K Edwards 15*, F Edwards 0*) lead India 209 (Sehwag 55, Dravid 54, Sammy 3-35) by 116 runs
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	Even MS Dhoni couldn't rescue India as they conceded a 95-run first-innings lead © AFP Enlarge
Related Links Players/Officials: Rahul Dravid | Pragyan Ojha | Darren Sammy Matches: India v West Indies at Delhi Series/Tournaments: West Indies tour of India Teams: India | West Indies

Smart stats Only three times have more than 17 wickets fallen in a day in a Test in India - on days two and three in Mumbaiin 2005 against Australia, and in Delhi against West Indies in 1987. Since the beginning of 2007, Shivnarine Chanderpaulaverages 66.86 in Tests - with a 2000-run cut-off, only Kumar Sangakkara has a higher average. Pragyan Ojha's 6 for 72 are the best figures by an India spinner in the first innings of a home Test since Anil Kumble's 7 for 48 against Australia in Chennai in 2004. In ODIs, MS Dhoni has scored 340 runs since his last dismissal; in Tests he has been dismissed 15 times while scoring his last 338 runs. The last time two spinners opened the bowling attack was in Mumbai in 2009, when Harbhajan Singh and Ojha shared the new ball against Sri Lanka.

Their batsmen tied themselves in knots, the edges their bowlers produced kept falling short, they took a wicket off a no-ball too, they saw the Indian openers plunder 89 runs in 12.3 overs, but even with what seemed a below-par total of 304 to defend, West Indies didn't give up. Carlton Baugh did sensational work behind the stumps; Darren Sammy, the captain who has to keep justifying his place in the side every time he walks out, took three wickets and had a hand in two others; and the other bowlers chipped in with timely breakthroughs to bowl India out for their lowest total at home in three-and-a-half years.

The 95-run lead they secured in the first innings could prove to be match-winning on a slow and low track where scoring runs remains a struggle. West Indies learned that when they lost five wickets for 48 runs in the morning session, and two for 21 in the evening. They would have wondered what the fuss over the pitch was all about when Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir all but blew them away. Then came two freak dismissals, an opening that their bowlers burst through.

There was no bursting through by the Indian bowlers in the morning. They tried honestly with stump-to-stump lines and restrictive fields. That five of the seven wickets they took today fell lbw spoke of India's accuracy, and that none of the 11 wickets to spin came through exploding deliveries and bat-pad catches pointed at the hard work required.

Sensational as 5 for 48 in the morning might sound, nothing happened for the first seven overs. They had to turn to the spin of Pragyan Ojha, who bowled straight, and trapped Baugh and Sammy in his first two overs of the day. That brought Ojha his first Test five-for.

Overnight centurion Shivnarine Chanderpaul could add only seven before an Ishant Sharma delivery stayed low and he was given lbw. Chanderpaul could be unhappy with two men at the other end: Ravi Rampaul, who had declined an easy single last ball, and the umpire Kumar Dharmasena, because the wide angle from round the stumps could have carried the ball down leg.

The rest fell soon enough, in stark contrast to how much West Indies had to struggle for their first wicket. Fidel Edwards must have walked under a ladder when coming to the ground: in his first three overs he produced two edges that didn't carry, one that was dropped, and bowled Sehwag off a no-ball. The Indian openers never thought of caution despite all that, and kept hitting boundaries, 10 between them.

While the batsmen's skill at livening up the game on a dull track shone through, it was also possible because West Indies were prepared to attack much more than India did. Perhaps the build-up of their attack didn't allow them the line-and-length business. Often Edwards and Ravi Rampaul bowled without either mid-off or mid-on, they pitched it up regularly, and the openers kept attacking.

The reward came unexpectedly, though, when a Sehwag straight drive ran Gambhir out. You could say luck had evened out, you could also say Gambhir held the bat in the wrong hand, which cost him some distance as he tried to make it back after having backed up. Three overs later Baugh made a good collection down the leg side. Sehwag had tried a vertical-sweep, and even though his back foot never left the crease, Baugh knew Sehwag would have to move it to resist backward momentum. He waited, he saw Sehwag lift it momentarily, and stumped him. The thought-processing happened in about two seconds.

Just as fast, it seemed, Sammy called back Edwards, who had gone for 49 in his five overs. Edwards responded by trapping Sachin Tendulkar with a skidder that moved in, a typical mode of dismissal on this track. Soon Baugh took a low catch off Devendra Bishoo to send VVS Laxman back.

Yuvraj Singh counterattacked, added 32 with Dravid, but immediately after tea drove Sammy straight to short cover. With half the side gone, and half of West Indies' total achieved, in walked India's captain. Four balls later, he walked back, having missed a straight delivery. Two runs later, Baugh was into the game again, catching a healthy leg-side edge when standing up to Sammy, sending back Ashwin.

Dravid and Ishant Sharma added 49 for the eighth wicket, Dravid reaching his sixth fifty-plus score past his 38th birthday. But West Indies' success lay in how, unlike four of those six efforts, Dravid couldn't convert this into three figures. Before Dravid was hurried into a pull off Rampaul, though, it was Marlon Samuels who broke through with Ishant's wicket. Rampaul followed up Dravid's wicket with a golden duck for Umesh Yadav.

The duck-hunt didn't end. The West Indies top order repeated the mistake from the first innings, allowing the spinners, who opened the innings, to bowl wherever they wanted to bowl. Kieran Powell fell for a duck, and Kraigg Brathwaite pushed down the wrong line just before stumps, making it 17 wickets for the day, setting up a delicious finish to the match.

Windies get the better of 17-wicket day

West Indies 304 (Chanderpaul 118, Brathwaite 63, Ojha 6-72, Ashwin 3-81) and 21 for 2 (K Edwards 15*, F Edwards 0*) lead India 209 (Sehwag 55, Dravid 54, Sammy 3-35) by 116 runs
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How they were out

	Even MS Dhoni couldn't rescue India as they conceded a 95-run first-innings lead © AFP Enlarge
Related Links Players/Officials: Rahul Dravid | Pragyan Ojha | Darren Sammy Matches: India v West Indies at Delhi Series/Tournaments: West Indies tour of India Teams: India | West Indies

Smart stats Only three times have more than 17 wickets fallen in a day in a Test in India - on days two and three in Mumbaiin 2005 against Australia, and in Delhi against West Indies in 1987. Since the beginning of 2007, Shivnarine Chanderpaulaverages 66.86 in Tests - with a 2000-run cut-off, only Kumar Sangakkara has a higher average. Pragyan Ojha's 6 for 72 are the best figures by an India spinner in the first innings of a home Test since Anil Kumble's 7 for 48 against Australia in Chennai in 2004. In ODIs, MS Dhoni has scored 340 runs since his last dismissal; in Tests he has been dismissed 15 times while scoring his last 338 runs. The last time two spinners opened the bowling attack was in Mumbai in 2009, when Harbhajan Singh and Ojha shared the new ball against Sri Lanka.

Their batsmen tied themselves in knots, the edges their bowlers produced kept falling short, they took a wicket off a no-ball too, they saw the Indian openers plunder 89 runs in 12.3 overs, but even with what seemed a below-par total of 304 to defend, West Indies didn't give up. Carlton Baugh did sensational work behind the stumps; Darren Sammy, the captain who has to keep justifying his place in the side every time he walks out, took three wickets and had a hand in two others; and the other bowlers chipped in with timely breakthroughs to bowl India out for their lowest total at home in three-and-a-half years.

The 95-run lead they secured in the first innings could prove to be match-winning on a slow and low track where scoring runs remains a struggle. West Indies learned that when they lost five wickets for 48 runs in the morning session, and two for 21 in the evening. They would have wondered what the fuss over the pitch was all about when Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir all but blew them away. Then came two freak dismissals, an opening that their bowlers burst through.

There was no bursting through by the Indian bowlers in the morning. They tried honestly with stump-to-stump lines and restrictive fields. That five of the seven wickets they took today fell lbw spoke of India's accuracy, and that none of the 11 wickets to spin came through exploding deliveries and bat-pad catches pointed at the hard work required.

Sensational as 5 for 48 in the morning might sound, nothing happened for the first seven overs. They had to turn to the spin of Pragyan Ojha, who bowled straight, and trapped Baugh and Sammy in his first two overs of the day. That brought Ojha his first Test five-for.

Overnight centurion Shivnarine Chanderpaul could add only seven before an Ishant Sharma delivery stayed low and he was given lbw. Chanderpaul could be unhappy with two men at the other end: Ravi Rampaul, who had declined an easy single last ball, and the umpire Kumar Dharmasena, because the wide angle from round the stumps could have carried the ball down leg.

The rest fell soon enough, in stark contrast to how much West Indies had to struggle for their first wicket. Fidel Edwards must have walked under a ladder when coming to the ground: in his first three overs he produced two edges that didn't carry, one that was dropped, and bowled Sehwag off a no-ball. The Indian openers never thought of caution despite all that, and kept hitting boundaries, 10 between them.

While the batsmen's skill at livening up the game on a dull track shone through, it was also possible because West Indies were prepared to attack much more than India did. Perhaps the build-up of their attack didn't allow them the line-and-length business. Often Edwards and Ravi Rampaul bowled without either mid-off or mid-on, they pitched it up regularly, and the openers kept attacking.

The reward came unexpectedly, though, when a Sehwag straight drive ran Gambhir out. You could say luck had evened out, you could also say Gambhir held the bat in the wrong hand, which cost him some distance as he tried to make it back after having backed up. Three overs later Baugh made a good collection down the leg side. Sehwag had tried a vertical-sweep, and even though his back foot never left the crease, Baugh knew Sehwag would have to move it to resist backward momentum. He waited, he saw Sehwag lift it momentarily, and stumped him. The thought-processing happened in about two seconds.

Just as fast, it seemed, Sammy called back Edwards, who had gone for 49 in his five overs. Edwards responded by trapping Sachin Tendulkar with a skidder that moved in, a typical mode of dismissal on this track. Soon Baugh took a low catch off Devendra Bishoo to send VVS Laxman back.

Yuvraj Singh counterattacked, added 32 with Dravid, but immediately after tea drove Sammy straight to short cover. With half the side gone, and half of West Indies' total achieved, in walked India's captain. Four balls later, he walked back, having missed a straight delivery. Two runs later, Baugh was into the game again, catching a healthy leg-side edge when standing up to Sammy, sending back Ashwin.

Dravid and Ishant Sharma added 49 for the eighth wicket, Dravid reaching his sixth fifty-plus score past his 38th birthday. But West Indies' success lay in how, unlike four of those six efforts, Dravid couldn't convert this into three figures. Before Dravid was hurried into a pull off Rampaul, though, it was Marlon Samuels who broke through with Ishant's wicket. Rampaul followed up Dravid's wicket with a golden duck for Umesh Yadav.

The duck-hunt didn't end. The West Indies top order repeated the mistake from the first innings, allowing the spinners, who opened the innings, to bowl wherever they wanted to bowl. Kieran Powell fell for a duck, and Kraigg Brathwaite pushed down the wrong line just before stumps, making it 17 wickets for the day, setting up a delicious finish to the match.

Best runouts of cricket

Chanderpaul century thwarts India again

West Indies 256 for 5 (Chanderpaul 111*, Brathwaite 63, Ojha 3-58) v India
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	That man again: Shivnarine Chanderpaul scores his seventh century against India © AFP Enlarge
Related Links Players/Officials: Kraigg Brathwaite | Shivnarine Chanderpaul Matches: India v West Indies at Delhi Series/Tournaments: West Indies tour of India Teams: India | West Indies

Two old nemeses turned up against India on the first day of the series. A typical slow and low Kotla track broke the bowlers' backs, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul continued his torture of Indian bowlers with his seventh century against his favourite opposition, making it two in the last two Tests. Attrition remained the order for the day, as is evident from West Indies' run-rate of 2.81, but Chanderpaul scored at close to four per over. India, though, kept chipping away at the others with accurate spin bowling to make sure the honours were shared on the first day.

Chanderpaul drew support from a man who was two years old when he began using the bail to mark his guard in Tests. Kraigg Brathwaite, who became only the second West Indian to score two fifties before his 19th birthday, has similar reserves of patience, idolises Chanderpaul, and uses the bail to mark his guard. For 37 overs and 108 runs today, the youngest and the oldest members of the side did all that together. Except that the youngster played the old-fashioned watchful innings and Chanderpaul turned the momentum with quick runs.

You couldn't quite blame the teams for the slow cricket, though. When the third ball of the match doesn't carry through to the wicketkeeper, and when it happens four more times in the next seven overs, it's best not to expect attractive cricket. Effort balls went through waist high, and strokes found little value. On this pitch, Syed Abid Ali and Eknath Solkar would have been as effective as Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. When India bowl 91 overs in a day's play, it has to be either during a push for a win on the final day or when the pitch has nothing in it for the quicks. While the latter was true, the way the West Indies top order went into a shell the former didn't seem incorrect either.

Smart stats Shivnarine Chanderpaul's century is his seventh against India, bringing him joint-second on the list of players with the most Test centuries against India. Garry Sobers and Viv Richards are on top with eight centuries each. The century is also Chanderpaul's 24th in Tests. He is now level third with Viv Richards on the the list of West Indians with the most Test centuries. Brian Lara and Garry Sobers, with 34 and 26 centuries respectively, are the top two on the list. MS Dhoni went past Syed Kirmani's tally of 198 wicket-keeping dismissals to become India's all-time leader. He now has 200 dismissals in 62 Tests. Dhoni also became the 13th wicketkeeper to reach the landmark of 200 Test dismissals. Mark Boucher is on top with 521 dismissals. Chanderpaul's strike rate of 66.46 in his innings is the third-highest for a 100-plus score in his career (all other completed knocks). The highest strike rate is 138.88 during his 100 off 72 balls against Australia in 2003. The 108-run stand between Chanderpaul and Kraigg Brathwaite is the ninth century stand for the fourth wicket for West Indies in Tests in India. It is also the third-highest for West Indies in Tests in Delhi.

Kieran Powell and Kirk Edwards, who scored 29 off 80 balls between them, allowed Pragyan Ojha and debutant R Ashwin to bowl wherever they liked to. What started as one slip and one short leg soon became a spinner's umbrella field. The result was a period of 14.3 overs that went for 20 runs and consumed both the batsmen. Both fell to Ojha, whose figures then read 7.3-4-8-2. Darren Bravo tried to disturb that state of affairs, but gave Ashwin his first Test wicket when he went manufacturing a cut off a length ball.

When Chanderpaul walked in, at 72 for 3, the man at the other end was going at the strike-rate he himself often does. He would have known if two men did that, sooner or later one might pop up to one of the many catching men. Thus began his shuffle, nurdles, deflections, late-cuts, chips, stolen singles, and two sixes down the ground. Mid-on and mid-off had been deep earlier too, sweeper-cover had been in place too, but the field looked much more porous now.

There were three shots that very Chanderpaul. The second ball of spin he played he dragged it from outside off for a single through midwicket. Later on in the piece, he moved well across into a wide delivery from Umesh Yadav, and it was like just the momentum of the shuffle and the wrists forced the ball between mid-off and extra cover. That four took him to 62, level then with Brathwaite, who was 30 when Chanderpaul walked in. In the next over, he danced down to Ojha, was beaten in the flight, but nonchalantly flicked him for his second six over long-on. He was working the singles, he was forcing the fours, and even when he was beaten in the flight it was not proving good enough.

Brathwaite might not have taken similar liberties, but was good at running the ball to third man or helping it around the corner on the leg side. Behind square on the off side he scored 26 runs, including four boundaries, all of them intentional. Ojha, though, continued his toil and finally got one to dip, which made Brathwaite drag his back foot as he tried to play the forward-defensive. It wasn't a big drag, nor did it take him long to get back, and he might have possibly survived with other keepers, but MS Dhoni's no reverse-follow-through stumping left him no chance.

That was one fine way to reach 199 dismissals, beating Syed Kirmani's Indian record in 26 fewer Tests. No. 200 came soon when Marlon Samuels, always one to camp back against spin, edged a length ball from Ashwin. With two wickets for 20 runs, India now looked to build more pressure. Chanderpaul took 11 runs in the next over. Four overthrows followed in the next over, and Chanderpaul was in his nineties. With a gentle paddle sweep he matched Viv Richards' 24 centuries, and there hardly seemed any pressure.

Even as Carlton Baugh remained circumspect with stumps approaching, Chanderpaul made sure the sixth-wicket partnership of 56 runs chugged along at 4.1 per over. Chanderpaul walked back with Indian players rushing to shake his hand, and no one to nag him, telling him how to bat.

Anil Kumble 10 wickets record

West Indies bat first, India hand out debuts to two bowlers

Toss West Indies chose to bat v India
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West Indies unsurprisingly chose to bat first on a Kotla track expected to stay slow and low and break up later in the match. They made a surprising move in leaving Adrian Barath out and persisting with the opening combination that did the job in his absence in Bangladesh. They also brought back Ravi Rampaul, who did well against India in the home series earlier in the year.

India chose Umesh Yadav over Varun Aaron as one of the two bowling debutants. R Ashwin expectedly got a Test cap, and, just as expectedly, Yuvraj Singh was preferred at No.6 over Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.

West Indies 1 Kieran Powell, 2 Kraigg Brathwaite, 3 Kirk Edwards, 4 Darren Bravo, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Marlon Samuels, 7 Darren Sammy (capt), 8 Carlton Baugh (wk), 9 Ravi Rampaul, 10 Fidel Edwards, 11 Devendra Bishoo

India 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Pragyan Ojha, 11 Umesh Yadav