A dominant Indian side heralded a good start to batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar farewell series by taking early control of the first day of the first Test against West Indies on Wednesday at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
At stumps, India was placed at 37 for no loss with the two openers, Shikhar Dhawan (21) and Murali Vijay (16), at the crease and the hosts trailed the tourists by 197 runs with all their wickets intact at the end of first day's play.
Indian pace bowler Mohammad Shami impressed in his debut Test by taking four wickets (4-71) in 18 overs with a hostile spell that included quite a few reverse-swinging deliveries, and was a key factor in India's bowling out West Indies for a measly 234 on the opening day
Shami's wickets included Kieran Powell, top-scorer Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin and Sheldon Cottrell.
Meanwhile, although the almost 40,000 people gathered in the stadium waited with bated breath to see their idol Tendulkar show his prowess with the bat, however, Tendulkar instead did his bit with the ball by picking up a wicket in his first over itself, taking his Test wicket tally to 46.