NORTH SOUND: Ajinkya Rahane was within touching distance of a 10th Test century as India tightened the screws on the West Indies in reaching 287-4 in their second innings at lunch on the fourth day of the first Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Sunday.

Rahane, who top-scored with 81 in the tourists’ first-innings total of 297, had made 90 in partnership with Hanuma Vihari, who has contributed 57 so far to a century stand for the fifth wicket as India seek to build even further on a formidable overall advantage which now stands at 362 runs.

After labouring through a wicketless final session of day three, the West Indies struck in the second over of the morning when Roston Chase removed Virat Kohli before the Indian captain had added to his overnight score of 51.

Attempting to turn a full-length delivery to the on-side, the ball took a leading edge for John Campbell to take the catch at the second attempt at short extra-cover and give Chase his third wicket of the innings.

However Vihari started positively and not even the introduction of the second new ball could stem the flow of runs.

West Indies captain Jason Holder would have been relying on his two premier pacers — Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel — to make further inroads into the Indian batting line-up.

However, Gabriel seemed to be troubled by a foot injury while good fortune continued to evade the impressive Roach.

It left Holder himself to shoulder much of the bowling responsibility as Miguel Cummins, the fourth of the seam bowling options for the home side, was again off the field nursing an injury for much of the morning session.

Scoreboard

INDIA (1st Innings) 297 (A.M. Rahane 81, R.A. Jadeja 58, K.L. Rahul 44; K.A.J. Roach 4-66, S.T. Gabriel 3-71).

WEST INDIES (1st Innings) 222 (R.L. Chase 48; I. Sharma 5-43).

INDIA (2nd Innings, overnight 185-3):

K.L. Rahul b Chase 38

M.A. Agarwal lbw b Chase 16

C.A. Pujara b Roach 25

V. Kohli c Campbell b Chase 51

A.M. Rahane not out 90

G.H. Vihari not out 57

EXTRAS (B-6, LB-4) 10

TOTAL (for four wkts, 101 overs) 287

FALL OF WKTS: 1-30, 2-73, 3-81, 4-187.

BOWLING (to-date): Roach 17-7-22-1; Gabriel 13-3-49-0; Chase 35-5-107-3; Holder 16-4-35-0; Cummins 7-1-20-0; Campbell 6-0-20-0; Brathwaite 7-0-24-0.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2019