Kuldeep Leads Spinners' Charge In India's Rout Of Windies

The left-arm wrist-spinner's five-for in the second innings after Ashwin's four in the first consign the visitors to a massive innings defeat

- Amol Karhadkar

WINDIES IN INDIA

The writing was clear on the wall at the end of the second day's play.

The lone talking point on Saturday morning was whether the West Indies batsmen had skills to lay anchor and stretch the match into the fourth day's play.

But India's spinners required only 20-odd minutes into the last session to earn the remaining 14 wickets and complete a rout in the first Test at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

Record win

Thanks to R. Ashwin's four wickets in the first innings and Kuldeep Yadav's five in the second after the West Indies was made to follow on, India cruised to a record win by an innings and 272 runs.

The West Indies did score at a run rate of almost four an over but the fact that both its innings combined lasted less than 100 overs meant that the scoring rate had little impact on the eventual outcome of the match.

Starting the day at 94 for six in its first essay, with a humongous deficit of 555 runs, Roston Chase and Keemo Paul adopted the aggressive route against Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep. The latter was particularly punished as Paul and Chase kept sweeping his predictable length.

After adding 53 runs at almost run-a-ball in the morning, Paul succumbed to Umesh Yadav's bouncer, with his pull finding a lunging Cheteshwar Pujara at mid wicket.

That was the only wicket of the day for a pacer, with the spinners taking over.

Ashwin, having struggled to find his rhythm on the second evening, bowled a delightful spell, leaving the Windies tail with no answers at all.