New Delhi: Skipper Shubman Gill continued his prolific year in Tests by remaining unbeaten on 129 – his tenth ton in the format – as India declared their first innings at 518/5 in 134.2 overs on day two of the second and final Test against West Indies at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
Gill’s 129 not out, coming in 196 balls with the help of 16 fours and two sixes, is now his highest individual score in home Tests, going past the 128 he hit against Australia in Ahmedabad in March 2023.
The declaration came just after Dhruv Jurel was castled by West Indies skipper Roston Chase for 44, as India felt being powered to 518, thanks to a dominant batting display led by Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made 175, was enough to put a tired West Indies’ line-up into a daunting task now.
Resuming from 318/2, India added 200 runs before pulling the plug on their innings. Apart from Gill and Jaiswal, contributions from Jurel, B Sai Sudharsan (87) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (43) ensured India maintained momentum throughout their batting innings. Gill’s innings was marked by control and crisp timing and after reaching his fifty, he accelerated with crisp strokeplay to finish unbeaten.
India’s focus will now shift to their spin trio – Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Washington Sundar – to exploit signs of variable bounce and turn on the black soil pitch. A few deliveries, including the one that dismissed Jurel, kept low, while others turned sharply, thus offering encouragement to the hosts’ spinners.
West Indies, who failed to bat out 50 overs in either innings of the previous Test in Ahmedabad, will hope to show greater resilience this time around, with the pitch still being more conducive to batting than it was at the previous venue.
Day two began with a heartbreak for India as Jaiswal’s bid for a third Test double hundred ended in a weird run-out on the second over. After driving a full ball to mid-off, Jaiswal took off for a quick single, but Gill had said no to that call.
But by then, Tagenarine Chanderpaul fired a direct hit to the keeper’s end, and though Jaiswal made a desperate turn after being more than halfway down the pitch, keeper Tevin Imlach disturbed the stumps swiftly.
Reddy, promoted to number five with an aim by the Indian team management to get some game time, survived a close lbw call on the second ball he faced off Jayden Seales, before square driving off him for four.
Reddy had some luck again when he went hard on a drive and went just past second slip for four, even as Gill found boundaries easily via flicks, drives, and slashes, before bringing up his fifty with a superbly timed flick through mid-wicket for four off Seales.
Luck was yet again on Reddy’s side when Philip dropped his catch at mid-off off Jomel Warrican’s bowling, giving him a reprieve on 20. Reddy made up for his previous attempts of not going big against spinners by launching Warrican for two sixes and a four.
A calm Gill got huge cheers from a handy crowd by leaning into a half-volley from Greaves and driving through wide of mid-off for four, before thrashing him through the gap at extra cover for another boundary.
But Reddy fell seven runs short of his fifty when he looked to clear Warrican with a slog sweep, but holed out to long-on. With Gill and Jurel looking solid, India won yet another session before lunch break arrived.
After that, with West Indies’ bowling being unthreatening, Gill swept Pierre for four, before Jurel brought out his solid leg-side shots to pick quick boundaries. Gill then easily swept Chase for four, before getting his fifth Test century as India’s skipper in 177 balls with three runs cut through cover, and got good acknowledgement from the handy Delhi crowd.
Post that, Gill flicked a switch in his gears by clubbing Chase for six, before sweeping and cutting to get his boundaries, even as Jurel got a life at 39. Jurel, who impressed with his quick ability to pick lengths well, went for a pull on an overpitched ball from Chase, but was bowled for six runs short of his fifty. As he walked off, Gill came along too as India declared in the mid of second session and inviting West Indies to bat out remaining 43 overs in the day.
Brief Scores: India 518/5 in 134.2 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 175, Shubman Gill 129 not out; Jomel Warrican 3-98, Roston Chase 1-83) against West Indies
