Windies all our for 234 against India at stumps of day one
Kolkata: India started Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series by taking early control of the first Test on Wednesday against West Indies.
Shami returned impressive figures of 4/71 in 18 overs as India bowled out the visitors for a paltry 234 after they opted to bat at the Eden Gardens on the opening day.
West Indies skipper Darren Sammy’s decision to bat may have prevented the crowd from watching Tendulkar bat on the first day itself, but the 40-year-old retiring legend did his bit with the bowl picking up a wicket in his first over itself, taking his Test wicket tally to 46.
While Tendulkar was undoubtedly the cynosure of all eyes, Shami grabbed the opportunity with bot hands as he rocked the West Indies middle-order with a hostile spell that included quite a few reverse-swinging deliveries.
The 23-year-old Shami’s wickets included Kieran Powell, top-scorer Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin and Sheldon Cottrell.
Earlier, West Windies were placed were placed comfortably at 107 for two at lunch, but Shami wreaked havoc in the second session, extracting excellent reverse swings from the Eden pitch to trigger a collapse. The touring side lost eight wickets for 96 runs to be skittled out in 78 overs.
