Lunch India 336 for 7 (Vihari 84*, Ishant 11*, Holder 4-62) v West Indies
Jason Holder struck off the day’s first ball before Hanuma Vihari’s unbeaten half-century took India past 300 by lunch on day two. Starting on an overnight score of 42, Vihari went into the break in the company of No. 9 Ishant Sharma.
It was No. 8 Ravindra Jadeja who had taken India past 300 but he was dismissed by Rahkeem Cornwall for 16 in the 111th over. With Vihari, Jadeja added 38 runs for the seventh wicket, but couldn’t resist a slog once spin was introduced. His top edge to mid-on was the session’s second wicket.
Vihari displayed patience early in the morning, happy to see off a tight opening spell from Holder and the other two seamers. After Pant’s dismissal in the first over, he carefully collected the runs up to his half century. After that, he took on Cornwall to smack two boundaries in one over after surviving a dropped chance. He whipped a tossed up delivery to the midwicket fence before topping it up with a cut off the back foot two balls later.
The day had begun with Pant looking to drive off his very first delivery, and was found wanting against Holder’s delivery that swings into the left-hander. Trying to play through the covers, the ball went into the bat-body gap and dislodged his middle stump.
After that Jadeja and Vihari saw off a searing fast-bowling spell, consolidating India’s score in a period of attritional cricket, and it looked like India would’ve gone into the break only six down had Jadeja reined himself in. But searching for the wicket, Holder introduced the debutant Cornwall, and he found the breakthrough.
Thereafter, Ishant blocked through till lunch with Vihari unafraid to give the tailender the strike. Ishant was nearly run-out in the 114th over, but a throw from cover did not have anyone backing up, handing the batsman five runs to start his innings. Against Cornwall, Ishant looked more secure, even slog-sweeping the offspinner for a cracking boundary. At lunch, India ended up adding 72 runs for the loss of only two wickets.