Saha, Ashwin reach tons as India push on

ESPNCricinfo: Some of the selections in Virat Kohli’s Test team have made you worry for the future of old-fashioned Test batsmen, but Wriddhiman Saha and R Ashwin continued to bat for the tribe on the second morning of the St Lucia Test. Ashwin was one short of what could be his fourth Test century against West Indies, but it was Saha who played with intent against a limited West Indies attack happy to play the defensive game. In a wicketless session where India added only 82 runs, Saha scored 47 of those in 86 balls. Having started at 126 for 5, the partnership reached 190 by lunch, India’s third-highest sixth-wicket stand away from home.

The first hour of the day replicated what happened for long periods on the opening day. West Indies stacked up one side of the field, and their strike bowlers spent their energy bowling on that side of the pitch, hoping for impatient shots from the batsmen. None of that arrived.

India did show more intent in the second hour, though, with Saha taking risks and Ashwin taking only what came his way, understandable given he was approaching a hundred. Saha’s effort on the second morning was a repeat of his approach on the first day. Against disciplined bowling, Saha had scored 1 off the first 34 balls he faced, 8 off the first 65, and then opened up to end the day on 46 off 122. When he came back on Wednesday he scored just 6 off the first 31 balls he faced, but then drove Alzarri Joseph through cover for the first boundary of the day, in the 10th over of the morning.

After drinks the clear plan seemed for Saha to have a go and disrupt West Indies from their plan of taking time out of the game. Sixty-one came in the second hour as opposed to 21 in the first. Saha was at the forefront, hitting all of the first five boundaries of the day. The third of those, a slog off Roston Chase, the offspinner, took him to his personal best, 64. The fourth took the partnership to 150. In the 21st over of the morning, Ashwin cut away from his body and got his first boundary of the day, moving to 99.

Even as Ashwin stayed on 99, Saha raced away from 76 to 93 by the time the players went off for their second meal of the day. In the last over before lunch, though, Shannon Gabriel caught Saha on the bare forearm with a short ball and left him with a swollen elbow. There was still life in the pitch even though not as extravagant as on the first morning.