India restrict West Indies to 88/4 despite Blackwood 62

Speedster Ishant Sharma made early inroads with twin blows before Jermaine Blackwood's run-a-ball 62 as India maintained its stranglehold on West Indies restricting the home team to 88 for four at lunch on the first day of the second cricket Test here today.
It was Ishant (2/24 in 6 overs) and Mohammed Shami (1/13 in 6 overs), who had the Caribbeans reeling at 7 for 3 before Blackwood played a brilliant counter-attacking innings studded with seven boundaries and four sixes.
He added 81 runs with an unusually subdued Marlon Samuels (14 batting, 71 balls) before being trapped leg-before at the stroke of lunch by Ravichandran Ashwin.

This was after skipper Jason Holder won the toss on a damp pitch and elected to bat first.
West Indies made one change to their line-up, bringing in debutant Miguel Cummins in place of Carlos Brathwaite, while India were forced to make a change as well. KL Rahul came into the side in place of the injured Murali Vijay.
Ishant and Shami started proceedings for India, and the two bowlers were right on the money from the word go.

Ishant in particular was impressive with his line and length, a marked improvement from the Antigua Test, as he pitched the ball further up and got it to move about.

He also used the bounce on offer, and the rewards came quickly. Kraigg Brathwaite (1) was unable to fend off a short delivery in the 3rd over, lobbing an easy catch to Cheteshwar Pujara at forward short leg.
Off the very next ball, Darren Bravo (0) was forced to fend an incoming delivery and skipper Virat Kohli completed a brilliant diving catch at second slip.
Three overs later, Shami got Rajendra Chandrika (5) to drive, only to find KL Rahul at gully as West Indies were struggling within the first 30 minutes of play.
(REOPENS FGN 27)
Spin was introduced in the 12th over as R Ashwin (1-13) came on, but Blackwood went after him as well, smacking 10 runs off his second over.

Samuels continuously egged him on at the other end. He played some attacking shots as well, including a cut six off Umesh Yadav (0-20), though he was tight enough in his defence too.
It seemed as there was a continuous barrage of sixes, five of them coming in this first session of play, four from Blackwood alone as West Indies raced past the 50-mark in the 16th over despite their poor start.
Their 50-partnership had come off just 75 balls, and in doing so, Blackwood reached his 7th Test fifty off only 47 balls.
India didn't seem to have any answers to this assault, and both spinners had been introduced within 17 overs, with Mishra (0-18) coming on to bowl as well. There were some interesting shouts against Blackwood, who lived dangerously.

And just when it seemed that West Indies had managed to sneak into the lunch break without any further loss, Ashwin trapped Blackwood LBW to bring an end to his hectic stay at the crease. Roston Chase (0 batting) was the other unbeaten batsman at the crease, then.