India crush West Indies by innings and 272 runs in Rajkot Test

India outclassed the West Indies by an innings and 272 runs in the first Test to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

The visiting side failed to put up a show against the No.1 Test side as India dominated the entire contest and registered their biggest innings win at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

After putting a massive 649/9 on the board, India rode on its disciplined bowling attack to skittle out West Indies for the second time within two days.

The visiting batsmen had no answer to the Indian bowling as they succumbed and fell for 181 and 196 runs in their first and second innings respectively.

Resuming their first innings at 94/6 on Saturday, West Indies were all out after an hour and 10 minutes in the morning session.

Roston Chase (53) and Keemo Paul (47) stitched together a 73-run stand. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin ran through the tail, ending with 4/37 in 11 overs.

Ashwin first removed Chase with a beauty, a flighted ball that turned in to create a big gap between bat and pad before crashing into the stumps.

Number 10 and 11 were easy meat for Aswhin, who sent them back with the away turning ball.

Asked to follow-on, the visitors lost skipper Kraigg Brathwaite (10) as Ashwin struck again as West Indies' scorecard read 32/1.

Later, chinaman Kuldeep Yadav ran through the West Indian middle order as he scalped five wickets to leave the visitors at 151/6.

It was also Kuldeep's maiden five-wicket haul in Test as he returned with career best figures of 5/57.

Other than opener Kieran Powell, who showed some resistence with his knock 83 runs, no visiting batsman showed a fight and fell cheaply. After his fall, Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin struck each to pack back Keemo Paul (15) and Devendra Bishoo (9) as West Indies were 185/8 when lunch was taken.

In the third and final session, Jadeja dismissed Shannon Gabriel (4) and Sherman Lewis (4) as India registered a comfortable victory.

Earlier, India rode on debutant opener Prithvi Shaw's 134, skipper Virat Kohli's 139 and Jadeja's unbeaten 100 to put a huge 649/9 on board.

The second and final Test of the series will be held from October 12 in Hyderabad.

Brief Scores: India 1st Innings 649 for 9 in 149.5 overs (Virat Kohli 139, Prithvi Shaw 134, Ravindra Jadeja 100; Devendra Bishoo 4/217) beat West Indies 181 all out (Roston Chase 53, Keemo Paul 47; Ravichandran Ashwin 4/37, Mohammed Shami 2/22) & 196 all out (Kieran Powell 83; Kuldeep Yadav 5/57).

--IANS

kk/vm