Zaheer takes one but West Indies A steady at 173/3 at tea

Veteran pacer Zaheer Khan celebrated his first wicket but a dogged 74-run unbeaten partnership between opener Kraigg Brathwaite and Assad Fudadin helped West Indies A reach 173 for three in their first innings at tea on the first day of the second unofficial Test against india A here today.
Both were batting on 69 (176 balls with 11 fours) and 36 (64 balls with four boundaries) respectively after captain Kirk Edwards (18) and Narsingh Deonaraine (12) were the two batsmen to be dismissed during the session.
Brathwaite, who had been a thorn in the flesh for Indian bowlers in the Mysore Test, played his usual game of sticking to the wicket as his favourite player Shivnaraine Chanderpaul would have done. The Barbadian reached his second fifty of the series in 197 minutes from 138 balls.

Fudadin, who had played a crucial knock of 86 in the first innings of the last match, was lucky to be dropped twice during the session.
The left-handed Guyanese batsman was first dropped on 12 by V A Jagadeesh off Mohammad Shami and then by Mohammad Kaif off Abhishek Nayar on 27.
After reaching 67 for one at lunch, the visitors lost their second wicket in the first over after the break.

Left-arm orthodox spinner Bharghav Bhatt, who gave a breakthrough just before lunch, struck big time by removing in-form West Indies Captain Kirk Edwards, who was stumped by Uday Kaul for 18.

Zaheer, who has been out of Indian squad since last year, celebrated his first wicket after hurling down 57 balls. He trapped Narsingh Deonaraine for 12.
The 34-year-old, who has taken 295 international wickets from 88 Tests and 282 wickets from 200 ODIs, has been left out of the India squad since last year after he picked just one wicket against England at the Eden Gardens.
Earlier, West Indies lost one wicket before lunch in their bid to give a solid platform for the later batsmen to capitalise on and put a big total as they did in the Mysore Test.

The opening pair of Brathwaite and Kieran Powell (33) began their innings with caution but just before lunch the latter gave a catch to Mohammad Kaif in the deep off Bhatt.