Shane Shillingford silenced the Eden Gardens crowd by trapping Sachin Tendulkar plumb in front of the wicket on the second day of the first Test in Kolkata on Thursday.
Shillingford lured Vijay out with a tossed up ball who did not pick the straighter one and has walked right past it and became Shillingford’s 50th Test victim.
Shikhar Dhawan edged a Shillingford delivery onto his leg-stump as India lost their first wicket in the third over of the day.
The day’s play started with openers Dhawan and Murali Vijay resuming the Indian first innings at 37/0.
On Day 1, Dhawan and Vijay had no problem whatsoever in negotiating a dozen overs, raking up 37 runs in the process after debutant Mohammed Shami set the Eden on fire by picking up four wickets to shoot out the West Indies for 234 in their first innings.
Shami, who became the 22nd Indian player to make his Test debut at the Eden Gardens, bowled with lot of heart on a docile track that didn’t provide any lateral movement.
The Bengal pacer’s maiden wicket was a gift from Kieran Powell. The left-handed opener, having successfully negotiated the new ball for 14 overs, tried an audacious pull off a bouncer that pitched on the off-stump and ended up top-edging it to mid-off.
However, there was nothing fortuitous about Shami’s next three wickets as he pegged back the stumps on each occasion, cutting the ball back into his victims and raising both arms in delirious celebration.
Even Sachin joined the back-slapping brigade as Bengal cricket’s latest import from UP justified the faith placed in him by skipper MS Dhoni, whose decision to leave out Umesh Yadav surprised many. It was, however, no surprise to see Rohit Sharma being handed his debut cap by the Little Master before the match as India went in with just four frontline bowlers.
With West Indies’ batsmen finding different ways to get out (4 bowled, 1 run out, 1 caught & bowled, 1 lbw, 1 caught at slip, 2 caught in the outfield), Dhoni didn’t have to call upon Rohit to bowl off spin, but the skipper’s instinctive move to give Sachin an over paid immediate dividends.
Brought on to bowl from the High Court end just before the tea break, Sachin trapped young Shane Shillingford leg-before wicket with his fourth delivery as the batsman padded up.