The first Test match between West India and India got underway at the Windsor Park in Dominica on Wednesday (July 12). West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite won the toss and elected to bat first. However, things did not go as well as he would have liked them to go in the first session on Day 1. In fact, it was a session dominated by the visting side with their star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin doing the bulk of the damage for them.
Ashwin was the first one to get the breakthrough for Team India after being handed the ball inside the first hour of the day's play. The veteran off-spinner got on to angle into the West Indies opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul before it turned just about enough to beat the southpaw's outside edge and rattle into the wickets. It was what one may call a dream off-spinner's ball to a left-hander which ended Chanderpaul's knock for 12.
Have a look at the dismissal here:
This wasn't the only wicket that Ashwin produced in the very first session of the match. He removed the other West Indies opener as well who was none other than their captain Brathwaite. The right-handed batter tried to go for a big shot but failed to get the desired connection. The ball went a long way up but had the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma underneath it at covers who completed an easy catch.
The other two wickets to fall in the morning session on the first day of the Dominica Test were that of Raymon Reifer and Jermaine Blackwood. While Thakur got the Reifer in his very first over, producing the edge of the bat of Reifer which was pouched safely by debutant wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan. Jermaine Blackwood fell off the last before the lunch break off the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja. At Lunch, the West Indies scoreboard read 68/4 with Alick Athanaze, playing his first Test match, not out on 13.