Windies reach 26-1 at tea after India declare innings at 518/5

West Indies reached 26 for one at tea after India declared their first innings at 518 for five on day two of the second Test here on Saturday.

Tagenarine Chanderpaul (13) and Alick Athanaze (2) were at the crease at the break.

For West Indies, left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican (3/98) was the pick of the bowlers.

Earlier, Gill treated the West Indies bowlers with utter disdain while inching closer to his 10^th Test hundred as India piled on the visitors’ misery, reaching 427 for four at lunch on the second day of the second Test here on Saturday.  At the break, Gill was batting on 75 in company of Dhruv Jurel (7 batting).

Even as Yashasvi Jaiswal (175, 258 balls) was unfortunately run-out at the start of the day, Gill’s concentration didn’t waver with his boundary count reaching 11 fours along with a maximum, going into the break.

Nitish Kumar Reddy (43 off 54 balls), promoted to get some valuable batting time and prop up the score in quick time, added 91 for the fourth wicket in just 17.1 overs.

The best shot of the morning session and that too by a distance was the one that brought up Gill’s second fifty of the series. With a packed off-side field, Jayden Seales bowled on middle-leg with Gill flicking it through the vacant mid-wicket region.

When Justin Greaves was brought into the attack, his lack of pace allowed Gill to step out and loft him over mid-wicket for his first six.

Gill, who had decided to defend during the final hour of the opening day, came out with a different mindset.

It only helped that Anderson Phillip sprayed all over and was hit for a flurry of boundaries. A delivery on the pads was quickly dispatched behind square on the leg-side.

In his next over, Phillip was cut square of the wicket—one a bit late behind square and the other in-front with same intent that produced same result. There was an on-drive and when the keeper was brought up to the stumps with ‘7-2’ off-side field, he stepped out and hit over extra cover.

Reddy started with a cover drive off Seales and then hit another couple of fours by deliberately opening the bat face, guiding the ball through the slip cordon. After being dropped by Phillip off Warrican’s bowling, Reddy thumped the same bowler over long on fence for a six. He repeated the same shot in his next over.

The only possible mode of dismissal for Jaiswal (175) seemed to be a run-out, and that’s exactly how his marathon innings ended following a mix-up with Gill, who sent him back after the batter had crossed more than halfway down for a quick single.

Gill could be held partly responsible as it was Jaiswal’s call after he had pushed the ball slightly to the right of mid-off. Had Gill trusted his partner and continued running, the single looked very much on, with Jaiswal already sprinting towards the danger end.

Brief Scores:

India 1^st innings: 518 for 5 in 134.2 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 175, Shubman Gill 129 not out, Sai Sudharsan 87; Jomel Warrican 3/98).

West Indies 1^st innings: 26 for 1 in 11 overs (Tagenarine Chanderpaul 13; Ravindra Jadeja 1/5).