Kolkata: Debutant Mohammed Shami produced a devastating spell of reverse swing to return with a dream match haul of nine wickets as India spanked West Indies by an innings and 51 runs in the first Test and took a 1-0 lead in the two-match series here on Friday.
Ravichandran Ashwin also made it a memorable day by cracking his second Test century and then chipped in with three wickets as the hosts bundled out the visitors for a paltry 168 in the second innings to clinch the match with two days to spare.
Rohit Sharma, too, made his Test debut special, cracking a magnificent 177 in the first of the two-match series, which is also retiring legend Sachin Tendulkar’s last outing in international cricket.
Apart from Sharma, the star of the match was undoubtedly Shami who claimed 5/47 in the second innings and returned impressive match figures of 9 for 118 at Eden Gardens.
Shami’s effort is the second best by an Indian on debut after Narendra Hirwani’s 16/136 against the same opponents in Chennai in 1988.
Earlier, Sharma missed out on a double century on debut by 23 runs while Ashwin slammed his second Test ton in a record 280-run stand for the seventh wicket as India extended their lead to a mammoth 219 runs before being bowled out for 453.
Starting their second innings with a huge deficit, West Indies were bundled out for just 168, with off-spinner Ashwin (3/46) providing Shami the support at the other end.
Sharma slammed an exquisite 177 off 301 balls with the help of 23 fours and a six, while Ashwin made his runs off 210 balls, hitting 11 fours.
Making his debut at his home ground, Bengal pacer Shami, who took 4/71 in the first innings, utilised the conditions to maximum effect as he rocked the West Indies batting line-up with his lethal reverse swinging deliveries that skidded in sharply.
It was India’s fifth Test victory in a row after their 4-0 rout of Australia and the victory also snapped the West Indies’ six-match winning streak.
In their second innings, West Indies collapsed from 101 for one to 168 all out to hand India an easy win.
The two teams will now travel to Mumbai for the final Test and Tendulkar’s last in international cricket.
The impeccable line and length was key to Shami’s grand success on debut, India skipper MS Dhoni said.
It was the disciplined bowling that really helped us. Shami was fantastic, the line he bowled I think the most of the fast bowlers had got the reverse swing but he got the right line and length and that was the key. I think that’s the reason he got nine wickets in this game,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“You need a bit of pace if you want to dominate, he has very good seam positioning which means he can reverse away from the right-handers too. On a wicket that has more bounce he can move the ball both ways,” he added.
Dhoni also praised all-round performance of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who became the first India player to hit a hundred and take five wickets in Tests twice.
A dejected West Indies skipper Darren Sammy lashed out at his batsmen for the meek surrender.
“We get ourselves in good positions in Tests and then we give it away. Even when India were batting, we were in a good position at lunch yesterday and then we gave it away,” Sammy said.
“Getting bowled out in 60-70 overs is not good. One of our goals was to bat at least a 120 overs and we didn’t do that.” (PTI)
