Rain spoils opening day proceedings in fourth Test

Rain played spoilsport on the opening day of the first cricket Test between India and the West Indies as only 22 overs were bowled during which the visitors struck twice before play was called off, here today.
India removed two West Indies batsmen -- Leon Johnson and Dareen Bravo -- before rain forced early lunch break and play could never resume after that.
The hosts were 62 for two with Kraigg Brathwaite (32) and Marlon Samuels (4) at the crease.
The intermittent rain ended any chance of resumption of play even as the ground staff also struggled to keep ground play ready.

The play will start 30 minutes early tomorrow, with a maximum of 98 over to be bowled.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/13) and Mohammed Shami (0-14) started off proceedings after the hosts elected to bat, half an hour past the scheduled time with the session timings adjusted accordingly.

Under overcast conditions, the two pacers got enough purchase with the new ball and squared up both batsmen on more than a couple occasions from both ends. Kumar, in particular, continued from where he left off in St. Lucia.
And he should have had his reward, but skipper Virat Kohli dropped Brathwaite (on 4) in the 3rd over off Kumar, unable to latch on to the low one-handed catch at second slip.

Shami though was a touch wayward and it allowed the batsmen to score off him at times. It necessitated bringing Ishant Sharma (1/7) into the attack, and he delivered off the very first ball.
Johnson could not keep down a short delivery in the 12th over, and lobbed it up for Rohit Sharma to complete an easy catch at short leg, diving forward.
Spin was introduced in the 13th over then, and in his very second over, R Ashwin (1/22) slipped a beauty past Darren Bravo (10) and knocked back his off stump.
Marlon Samuels (4 batting) then joined Brathwaite at the crease, and the two took the score past the 50-mark before rain came again, just 15 minutes before the scheduled lunch was to be taken.

(REOPENS DEL 23)
England however had an impressive first session with Stokes and Bairstow oozing oodles of confidence and determination on a pitch with variable bounce but little assistance for spinners, perhaps due to the use of roller this morning.
Starting off from the pavillion end, Ashwin had an underwhelming first spell that included a first ball DRS referral only to be overturned.
Bairstow got one to sweep with a not-out verdict but an overconfident Ashwin showed the 'T' sign without consulting his captain Kohli as the ace off-spinner had an underwhelming first session to his own standard.
Then in the 55th over, Wriddhiman Saha failed to gather the ball cleanly with Stokes' backfoot out of crease as a stumping opportunity with the batsman on 24, was missed.

Stokes and Bairstow (53) dominated the first session and with India desperate for a breakthrough, Umesh Yadav finally gave the opening when he cleaned up the latter with a fuller delivery.
Having completed his 12th Test half-century with a boundary against Yadav a couple of overs ago, Bairstow was beaten by pace as he tried to work the ball away before it cannoned into his leg stump after grazing his pad.
Barring the opening towards the later stage, the first session clearly belonged to the English left-right duo.
Having tripped over his ankle while walking out to bat, Bairstow defied pain and played beautifully in his innings from 152 balls with five fours as along with Stokes, the duo became the most-prolific pairing in 2016, getting past Alastair Cook and Alex Hales.

He looked fully confident against Yadav against whom he brought up his fifty driving the ball to the boundary which also brought up their hundred partnership in 238 balls.
With his fifty, Bairstow also joined AB de Villiers (in 2013) as the most 50-plus scores in a calendar year but a yorker gave the much-needed opening.
At the other end, Stokes was in the middle of one of his slowest innings taking 108 balls to reach his eighth Test fifty and made full use of his stroke of lucks that began with yesterday when he was bowled by the bails did not dislodge.

Having done all the hardwork by taking the team out of the rut from being 80/5, Stokes end came in the second session that also opened the day's account for Ashwin.
Stokes prodded forward and the ball popped up to silly point as the English allrounder seemed to be caught in double jeopardy -- either trapped leg before or caught if he had an edge.
Not giving up, the left-hander went for a review as he was adjudged leg before something that looked to have instilled confidence in Ashwin, who bowled without any success this morning.
The pitch looked like worn-out but Ashwin had to wait for his first wicket till the 11th over of his day.

When India batted, England struck early with Stuart Broad (2/6) making full use of the DRS to remove both the openers -- Murali Vijay (3) and KL Rahul (10), who failed in both of his innings before James Anderson castled Cheteshwar Pujara (1) to reduce India to 40/3 inside 17 overs.
The Gautam Gambhir replacement Rahul played an atrocious shot away from his body edging behind the stumps. Broad had his way and referred successfully for a second time.
In his previous over Broad gave the breakthrough with Vijay taking a big inside edge and was caught by Joe Root at gully, a decision that was also referred to make India 16/1 just after tea.

Anderson replaced Broad and struck in his second over bowling Pujara middle-stump but since then Kohli batted in a different zone, piling on the misery for England who fought a losing battle.
There was a tantalising battle between Anderson and Kohli was on display but the Indian Test skipper was fully in control in yet another effortless display.
Following up his first innings 167, Kohli batted with ease and reached to his 13th Test fifty from 63 balls.