Bridgetown (Barbados), June 3:
The pace-spin combine of Shami Ahmed and Rahul Sharma shared six wickets as India ‘A’ bowled out West Indies ‘A’ for 252 on the opening day of their four-day unofficial cricket Test at the Kensington Oval here.
It took the Indians 87.3 overs to send the the host team back to the pavillion and make a dominating start in the three-match series.
Wickets tumbled at regular interval and had it not been for half centuries by wicketkeeper Devon Thomas (57) and lower-order batsman Veerasammy Permaul (66), the Caribbean side could well have folded up much earlier.
For India, Ahmed and Rahul picked up three wickets apiece, while medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar also did his bit by knocking off a couple of scalps.
It was a sedate start to the proceedings with Kraigg Brathwaite and Lendl Simmons pulling off just one boundary in a 20-run stand which ended when the latter was trapped leg-before by Bhuvneshwar. The right-hander contributed 11 runs to the total before his departure.
Just two runs later, Ahmed struck for India as Brathwaite, who also made 11, was caught behind by wicketkeeper Wriddhimaan Saha.
The hosts looked in deep trouble when they were reduced to 36 for three following the dismissal of Donovan Pagon by Ahmed before Nkrumah Bonner and Jonathan Carter stitched together 44 runs for the fourth wicket. (PTI)
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