Tea West Indies 150 and 27 for 2 (Reifer 7*, Blackwood 4*) trail India 421 for 5 dec (Jaiswal 171, Rohit 103, Kohli 76) by 244 runs
R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja picked up a wicket each to put West Indies in a spot of bother after India declared their first innings on 421 for 5. At tea on day three, West Indies were 27 for 2, with Raymon Reifer and Jermaine Blackwood at the crease.
On a pitch assisting spinners, Rohit Sharma had Ashwin and Jadeja operating in tandem after the fourth over of the innings itself. Jadeja immediately induced Kraigg Brathwaite’s outside edge but Ishan Kishan dropped it. Jadeja wasn’t to be denied for long, though. He struck in his very next over, trapping Tagenarine Chanderpaul lbw for 7.
Brathwaite took 30 balls to get off the mark, before Ashwin squared him up from around the wicket and had him caught at first slip.
In the morning, as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli resumed India’s innings from 312 for 2, West Indies started with a couple of handicaps. Alzarri Joseph couldn’t open the bowling because he was off the field for 28 minutes before stumps last evening. Rahkeem Cornwall was also not allowed to bowl for two hours as he had gone off the field with a chest infection before lunch on day two.
Joseph replaced Holder as soon as he was eligible to bowl. By then Jaiswal was looking to score quickly. He uppercut Joseph over backward point for four to bring up the 100-run partnership with Kohli, before skipping down the ground to launch Jomel Warrican for a straight six.
Joseph then pulled his length back, bowled five successive dot balls to Jaiswal, and had him caught behind with the sixth as the left-hander looked to punch off the back foot.
Ajinkya Rahane failed to account for the slowness of the pitch and fell for 3, chipping Kemar Roach’s first ball of the morning to cover.
West Indies had the opportunity to dismiss Kohli in the sixth over of the day, when Warrican got him to push uppishly towards extra cover but Brathwaite dropped the catch. Kohli was on 40 at the time and he had to work hard for his runs. It took him 147 balls to bring up his half-century, his third slowest in Test cricket.
The run-scoring became slightly easier when, around 25 minutes before lunch, Brathwaite deployed Alick Athanaze from one end and himself from the other. Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja used that window to score a couple of boundaries each and take India to 400.
Just after lunch, Kohli got another reprieve on 72. Driving away from the body, he edged Roach behind the stumps, and Joshua Da Silva, despite his one-handed diving effort, couldn’t hold on to the chance. Kohli’s innings eventually came to an end on 76 when he flicked Rahkeem Cornwall to leg slip.
Like the fellow debutant Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan also took a long time to open his account. Jaiswal had got off the mark off the 16th ball; Kishan did so on the 20th. As soon as Kishan scored his first run, Rohit declared the innings.
Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo