Darren Sammy and Devendra Bishoo shared five wickets to trigger India's collapse on the second day of the opening Test against the West Indies on Monday.
Darren Sammy and Devendra Bishoo shared five wickets to trigger India's collapse on the second day of the opening Test against the West Indies on Monday.
Seamer Sammy took three wickets off 11 balls while leg-spinner Bishoo bagged 2-55 as India failed to capitalise on a brisk start before being dismissed for 209 off 52.5 overs in reply to the West Indies' 304.
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Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha, who shared the new ball, removed openers Kieran Powell and Kraigg Brathwaite before the West Indies reached 21-2 in their second innings for an overall lead of 116 runs.
Bowlers struck it rich on a low, slow pitch at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi as 17 wickets fell in the day.
"There is still a lot of cricket left in this match. It was not a perfect day but I am happy with the way our bowlers bowled. We are a good bowling unit and we bowled in the right areas," said West Indies skipper Sammy.
"The wicket is low and slow but if you occupy the crease then there are runs in it. We will try and get 300 runs on the board."
India lost seven wickets, including that of batting star Sachin Tendulkar (seven), in the space of 65 runs after Virender Sehwag (55) and Gautam Gambhir (41) had added 89 runs for the opening wicket.
India were tottering at 154-7 but Rahul Dravid (54) scored a fighting half-century and put on 49 for the eighth wicket with Ishant Sharma (17).
Dravid was the ninth man to be dismissed, caught by Sammy at square-leg while attempting to pull paceman Ravi Rampaul, who ended the Indian innings when he bowled debutant Umesh Yadav with his next delivery.
Bishoo started the slide when he removed Sehwag and Venkatsai Laxman (one) in the afternoon session before Sammy accounted for Yuvraj Singh (23), skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ashwin.
Paceman Fidel Edwards got a big wicket when he trapped Tendulkar leg-before. Tendulkar, the world's leading scorer in Test and one-day cricket, needs just one more century to complete an unprecedented 100 international hundreds.
The West Indies bowlers were superbly backed by wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh, who effected one stumping and took three catches.
"There is nothing wrong with the wicket. There were some soft dismissals, including mine because I felt it was my mistake," said Sehwag.
"The match is evenly poised at this stage. We are confident of chasing a target of 250 or 300."
India had got off to an explosive start, with Sehwag and Gambhir dominating the West Indies' pace attack with exciting strokeplay to put on 89 runs in 12.3 overs.
Gambhir was unlucky to be dismissed in the 13th over as he was run out backing up, with Sammy deflecting a Sehwag straight drive on to the stumps. He smashed seven fours in his run-a-ball knock.
Sehwag raced to his half-century off 36 balls before falling in Bishoo's opening over, smartly stumped by Baugh, who removed the bails when the batsman's foot was in the air. He cracked nine fours in his 46-ball knock.
Ojha, returning to the Test side after a year, earlier finished with 6-72 for his maiden haul of five or more wickets in an innings as the West Indies added just 48 to their overnight total of 256-5.
The spinner took three of the five West Indies' wickets to fall in the opening session, while paceman Sharma and Ashwin each got one wicket.
Ashwin finished with 3-81 off 27 overs.
Ojha struck in his opening over when he trapped Baugh leg-before after the batsman had added eight runs to his overnight score of 19. Baugh put on 69 for the sixth wicket with Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Chanderpaul also did not last long as he fell leg-before to Sharma while attempting to work the ball on the on-side after adding just seven runs to his overnight score of 111.
He hit two sixes and seven fours in his 196-ball knock for his 24th Test century.
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