West Indian batsmen negotiated some quality fast bowling from India before reaching 93 for two at lunch as the first session of Sachin Tendulkar's farewell Test match ended up being and evenly-contested one here today.
Opener Kieran Powell was batting on 45 in the company of Marlon Samuels, who is yet to open his account. The batsmen dismissed were Chris Gayle for 11 and Darren Bravo, who looked in good touch during his brief innings of 29.
The Powell-Bravo partnership for the second wicket yielded 56 runs. Mohammed Shami (1/24) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/32) were the successful bowlers for India after host skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni invited the Windies to bat much to the disappointment of the Wankhede crowd.
Shami started off from where he left at the Eden Gardens, during his dream debut as he bowled at a brisk pace moving the ball away from the left hander. He did beat the bats of Gayle and Powell before removing the big Jamaican with a well crafted plan.
Having bowled a couple of full length deliveries, Shami bowled one that just kicked up from short of good length as Gayle got squared up in his bid to defend. The ball lobbed up after taking a leading edge as Rohit completed the formalities at point.
Gayle's poor show in the series continued having failed in both innings at Kolkata. He now has scores of 18, 33 and 11 from three innings of this ongoing Test series.
He didn't look like trying to play his natural game, which is to take on the opposition attack. He looked rusty and unusually bogged down.
It seemed that playing too many T20 matches has taken a toll on Gayle the Test batsman. Bravo was in trouble as soon as he arrived edging an away going delivery to first slip but the ball dropped in front of Ravichandran Ashwin, who was manning the zone.
