Kingston: After R Ashwin spun a web against West Indies batsmen, scalping for 52 in 16 overs that restricted the hosts to a paltry 196 in their first innings of second Test being played at Sabina Park, Kingston, KL Rahul, who came in as a replacement for injured Murali Vijay, showed his temperament with the bat and went to score an unbeaten 75 before the close of Day one as India scored 126 for one and is behind by 70 runs with nine wickets in hand.

Batting first, West Indies were in for a shock as they lost KC Brathwaite to Ishant Sharma in the very third over at a score of four. Sharma struck again on the very next ball as Dwayne Bravo gave a catch to Virat Kohli off the Indian pacer at the same score. R Chandrika, too, was sent back to the pavilion off a Mohammed Shami’s delivery that left the hosts tattering at 3 for 7 in the sixth over.

Though Jermaine Blackwood played some attacking shots, scoring a run-a-ball 62 that had seven fours and four sixes and along with Marlon Samuels (37, 88 balls), added 81 runs for the fourth wicket, it was all over for West Indies once Ashwin sent Samuels and Blackwood back into the pavilion. West Indies lost six wickets for 108 runs to get all-out for a score of less than 200 runs.

Meanwhile, Ashwin now has 188 victims in 34 matches.

Later, KL Rahul (75 batting) coming in place of Vijay made full use of the opportunity and went on to score an unbeaten half century. Rahul’s innings had 10 boundaries in 114 balls as he added 87 runs for the first wicket with a subdued Shikhar Dhawan (27, 52 balls, 5×4). After Dhawan’s dismissal, Cheteshwar Pujara joined Rahul and was batting on 18.