AHMEDABAD, India, CMC – Ravendra Jadeja followed up his unbeaten century with a four-wicket haul as West Indies’ batting capitulated once again to gift India a dominant victory by an innings and 140 runs inside three days in the opening Test here on Saturday.
The all-rounder ended on 104 not out after India declared their innings overnight on 448 for five, leaving the visitors with the mammoth task of having to score 287 runs to make them bat again.
However, Jadeja, who was named Player-of-the-Match, returned to bamboozle the top order with his left-arm spin and help bowl out the West Indies for 146 before tea on the third day and give the home side a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
It was yet another disappointing batting performance by the West Indies, marking the fourth consecutive Test match in which they were beaten inside three days, dating back to the three-match Test series against Australia in July.
Left with the unenviable task of having to bat three days to save the match, openers John Campbell and Tagenarine Chanderpaul would have been hoping for lengthy stays at the crease following their failures in the first innings.
But pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj made their short stays at the crease uncomfortable, especially Chanderpaul, who was lucky not to have been dismissed on at least two occasions.
India didn’t have to wait long for the breakthrough, though, with Nitish Kumar Reddy pulling off a spectacular catch diving to his left to get rid of Chanderpaul for eight after he skied his pull shot off Siraj to square leg.
Following a similar script from the first innings, Campbell was dismissed soon after when he guided a delivery from Jadeja straight into the hands of Sai Sudharsan at short leg to be out for 14, as West Indies slipped to 24 for two.
Brandon King made just five before his outside edge off Jadeja was snapped up at slip by KL Rahul, and the match was all but over when skipper Roston Chase was bewildered by a ball from spinner Kuldeep Yadav that spun past his bat to hit the top of off stump and leave the visitors in tatters at 35 for four.
Sha Hope faced 14 balls for his solitary run before he tried to cut a short delivery from Jadeja and was caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal at short third man to hasten West Indies’ demise at 46 for five.
The pair of Alick Athanaze and Justin Greaves carried their side to lunch without any further losses at 66 for five, but the writing was already on the wall.
They shared a 46-run partnership, the best of the innings, to give West Indies a faint hope of possibly pushing the match into a fourth day.
But 12 runs away from a well-deserved half century, Athanaze tried to turn off spinner Washington Sundar into the leg side, but the ball found the leading edge and popped into the air for the bowler to take the simplest of catches.
The Windies then lost the wickets of Greaves for 25 and Jomel Warrican for a duck, in the space of two balls, to slump to 98 for eight.
It took the efforts of last man Jayden Seales, who scored a counterattacking 22 off 12 balls, Johann Layne, who scored 14, and Khary Pierre, who ended unbeaten on 13, to get the West Indies up to their eventual total.
The match came to an end when Yadav had Seales caught and bowled, to give India captain Shubman Gill his first Test victory on home soil.
Jadeja ended with figures of 4-54, Siraj took 3-31, and Yadav 2-23. The second Test match bowls off at Delhi on Friday.
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