Kingston Test: Ajinkya Rahane scores ton, India build 304-run lead over Windies

Kingston Star batsman Ajinkya Rahane scored his seventh Test century as India gathered a vital 304run first innings lead against the West Indies at stumps on the third day of the second cricket Test at the Sabina Park Stadium here on MondayIndias Ajinkya Rahane R is congratulated by Umesh Yadav after reaching his Century off a delivery from West Indies bowler Roston Chase on day three of their Second Test cricket match at Sabina Park in Kingston Jamaica PicAFPIndia declared at 5009 in their first innings as heavy rains forced play to be called off for the dayRahane remained unbeaten on 108 off 237 balls with 13 fours and three sixes The Mumbaibased batsman was well supported at the other end by lowerorder batsman Wriddhiman Saha 47 and tailenders Amit Mishra 21 and Umesh Yadav 19For the hosts Roston Chase 5121 was the pick of the bowlersResuming the day at 3585 Rahane and Saha braved the difficult conditions and excellent bowling to plow on patiently and to build up the visitors leadRahane reached his halfcentury in style cutting pacer Miguel Cummins over the slip cordon for a boundaryHowever with the boundaries too few and far between the scoring rate became a bit slowLuck finally smiled on the holder on the stroke of lunch when an incoming delivery stayed a bit low and Saha misread the bounce only to see the ball strike him on the rear padThe sturdy rightarmer celebrated as the teams went in for lunch but with the pitch starting to show signs of wear and tear the hosts may struggle once they come out to bat in their second inningsRahane and Saha displayed loads of grit and patience to take India to 4256 at lunchAt lunch Rahane was unbeaten on 74 runsSaha on the other hand was unlucky to miss out on what would have been an extremely welldeserved halfcentury as he was dismissed on the last ball before teaThe Bengal wicketkeeperbatsman scored 47 runs before being outfoxed by a delivery from fast bowler Jason Holder that stayed a bit low after pitchingThe West Indies bowlers produced a better performance than what they had on the second day helped on in no small part by a wicket which is beginning to wear down a bitHolder was the only West Indies bowler to taste success in the prelunch session returning figures of 166 from the 32 overs he has bowled so farWith the wicket showing appreciable movement and bounce he exploited the conditions well to make the going tough for the Indian batsmen outfoxing them time and againRahane in particular had a very hard time against Holder with one particular over seeing the pacer beat the Mumbai batsman as many as five times Indeed Holder was unlucky not to bag more wicketsLegspinner Devendra Bishoo was also impressive making the ball turn sharply to cause plenty of trouble for the batsmenBishoo was also unlucky as he missed Rahanes wicket when the latter was on 65 The Mumbai batsman attempted to cut a delivery that was not short enough The top edge looped up to the right of point where Rajendra Chandrika dropped a relatively easy chanceResuming play after lunch from 4256 Rahane and Mishra held on quite well by gathering some useful runs before Mishra fell to Chase The offspinner struck in two successive balls to remove Mishra and incoming batsman Mohammad ShamiBut new batsman Umesh Yadav struck a handy knock to help team India reach the 500run markBrief scores West Indies 196 Jermaine Blackwood 62 Marlon Samuels 37 Ravichandran Ashwin 552 Mohammed Shami 223 vs India 5009 dec Lokesh Rahul 158 Ajinkya Rahane 108 not out Roston Chase 5121