Related Links : West Indies’ Tour of India 2011/12 : Scorecard of India Vs West Indies, 1st Test at Delhi
As many as 17 wickets fell down on a hectic second day’s play at the Feroz Shah Kotla with West Indies getting into a promising position to win the First Test. The low bounce and the slowness of the Kotla pitch made the batsmen look like a dead duck. Although India have their backs to the wall after conceding a sizeable 95-run first innings lead, they do have a chance of turning the tables on West Indies who have lost two wickets in their second essay with hardly any runs on the board.
When play started in the morning, West Indies were resuming at 256 for 5 in 91 overs with centurion Chanderpaul and Baugh in an unbroken stand. Pragyan Ojha broke this stand 39 minutes after the start of play when Carlton Baugh (27 from 71 balls with 3 fours) attempting a predetermined sweep got hit on the pad plumb infront of the stumps.
India having got the opening it needed ran through the rest of the West Indies line-up without any fuss as the tourists collapsed to 304 in 108.2 overs. After Baugh, Sammy was the next to be consumed by Pragyan Ojha with an arm ball which gave him a maiden five-wicket haul in Tests. In the next over, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (118 from 196 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes) was finally out when he shuffled across on the backfoot and got hit on the pad infront of leg by a skidding delivery from Ishant. The last two wickets were shared by Ashwin who got Rampaul lbw with a drifter and Ojha getting Fidel Edwards miscue a slog to point.
Pragyan Ojha had a grand finish of 34.2-9-72-6 while Ashwin on debut was impressive with 27-4-81-3. India had around minutes before lunch which was a torrid time as Fidel Edwards and Ravi Rampaul breathed fire. Despite that Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag with lots of luck provided a racy start and by lunch India knocked off 39 in just 5 overs, There was a huge disappointment for Windies when Sehwag’s stumps were cleaned up by Fidel Edwards but it didn’t count for being a no-ball.
After lunch, Sehwag and Gambhir took control of the game and West Indies seemed to have run out of ideas. However in the 13th over, the much needed breakthrough came when Sammy deflected a Sehwag straight drive onto the stumps with Gambhir (41 from 41 balls with 7 fours) backing out of his crease. The opening pair by then had accelerated the score to 89 in just the 13th over.
In the 16th over, wicket keeper Carlton Baugh pulled off a street smart stumping down the legside after noticing that Sehwag in an attempted paddle sweep off Bishoo had his backleg slightly in the air. Sehwag who got his fifty in just 36 balls departed for 55 (from 46 balls with 9 fours). The next man Sachin Tendulkar (7) lasted only 18 balls before he played across the line to a Fidel Edwards inducker which skidded through to have him lbw. West Indies for the first time were dominating the proceedings with India at 113 for 3.
Leggie Bishoo combined again with his keeper Baugh to have VVS Laxman (1 from 5 balls) poking behind away from his body in the 24th over. By Tea, India recovered slightly with Yuvraj Singh joining Dravid and playing his shots freely whenever there was an opportunity.
After Tea, the West Indies Skipper Darren Sammy with his innocuous medium pace ensured that India got into a disastrous position by remvoing Yuvraj Singh and his counterpart MS Dhoni in the 33rd over. While Yuvraj (23 from 39 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes) uppishly drove into the hands of extra covers, Dhoni fell for a 4-ball duck playing all around an off cutter to get bowled off a bat pad edge. Next to depart was R Aswhin (0 from 6 balls) who was caught glancing Sammy down the legside to the keeper to have India at 154 for 7. Ishant Sharma walking in as high as no.9 rallied along with Dravid to finally put up a semblance of fightback for India. The pair added 49 precious runs before Ishant Sharma was given caught behind when he missed an ambitious square drive to a flighted delivery from offie Marlon Samuels.
Rahul Dravid (54 from 111 balls with 3 fours) lost his wicket soon when he miscued a pull off a rising delivery from Rampaul to squareleg and in the very next ball, last man Umesh Yadav got his off stump knocked out by the same bowler. The hosts were bowled out for 209 in 52.5 overs with all the five West Indian bowlers used getting amongst the wickets. West Indies were in a great position having secured a 95-run lead on what looked like a difficult batting pitch.
By close of play on Day 2, India fought back removing the young West Indian openers through its spinners. The hosts used spin right from the start of the innings to the close of play in which West Indies crawled to 21 for 2 in 14 overs. First to depart was the left handed Kieran Powell (0 from 4 balls) in the 2nd over who drove a flighted Ashwin delivery towards covers where Gambhir took a catch in the third attempt. The other opener Kraigg Brathwaite (2 from 41 balls) who was more keen on defence got lbw in the final over playing well outside the line to a drifter from Ojha for an lbw. By the close of play, West Indies had Kirk Edwards on 15* with nightwatchman Fidel Edwards on 0* while the lead stretched to 116 runs.