Ravichandran Ashwin‘s brilliant bowling ensures that India will have 2 days to chill in the Caribbean islands as India won the test match on the 3rd day itself in an authoritative manner. Ravichandran Ashwin took a 7-wicket haul in the 2nd innings and helped India secure the win by innings and 141 runs, earning the first 12 paramount points of the WTC Cycle (2023-25).
Top Performer Of The Day:
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli start the proceedings of the day and both bring up a 100-run partnership. However, Jaiswal loses his concentration on the delivery of Alzarri Joseph and gets out with a marvelous score of 171. Yashasvi Jaiswal creates history as an Indian by scoring the highest runs on Test debut away from home. He also becomes the youngest Indian to achieve a 150-plus score on Test debut.
Virat Kohli, who was dropped twice while batting on 40 and 72, failed to convert the chances into a big hundred. He notched his 29th half-century in Tests in 146 balls but lost his wicket during the tight spell of Rahkeem Cornwall.
Regardless of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s daddy hundred and Virat’s impressive knock, Ravichandran Ashwin decided to make hay while the sun shines and created history by recording the best-ever bowling figures (46-13-131-12) by an Indian in a Test match in the Caribbean. He single-handedly bamboozled the West Indies batting lineup by taking seven wickets in the third innings. Furthermore, he became the 5th Indian bowler to achieve five-fors in each innings of an away Test.
India Dominates With Exquisite Victory
To win by a margin of an innings and 141 runs was an uphill task, but pulling off feats like that showcases the dominance and stature of India in world cricket. India allowed the Windies to make mistakes by inducing rash shots throughout the first innings, highlighting a significant disparity in the skillset and mindset of the two teams.
The only major task India needed to accomplish was to amass a substantial score in the first innings to avoid batting again in the test, and this was effectively achieved through the innings of both Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Alick Athanaze, the local boy of Dominica, showed some spark and intent in both innings. However, Ravi Ashwin didn’t let him get out of control and made him his victim in both innings. Jadeja’s 3 wickets in the first innings played a vital role in getting West Indies all out for a below-par score. And let’s not forget the side-punch by Virat Kohli, who also achieved the milestone of 8500 Test runs.
What To Expect Next
India is 1-0 ahead in this test series with one test match to go, and most likely India will seal the series by 2-0 unless West Indies perform out of their skins in the next test match. The match is scheduled to be held from July 20th at the next Caribbean destination, which is none other than Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Most likely, India will field the same XI, but there is a chance to include Axar Patel in the playing squad since fast bowling was not as effective as expected. The result of the next match is already roaming around India’s court, but in cricket, one can never give a team a 100% certainty as miracles do happen. However, can the West Indies be capable of performing such a miracle against this full-fledged Indian side? We shall find out after a 5-day break.