Gros-Islet, Saint Lucia: Roston Chase and Alzarri Joseph continued to peg back India with the tourists crawling to tea at 130 for five on the opening day of the third Test against the West Indies in St Lucia yesterday.
Debutant fast bowler Joseph removed Rohit Sharma shortly upon the resumption after lunch via a catch at the wicket to put the home side in charge with India faltering at 87 for four.
Ajinkya Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin then defied the bowlers for most of the rest of the session, only for Rahane to be bowled by second Test hero Chase for 35 off 133 balls five minutes before the interval.
Just 43 runs were scored in 29 overs in the two-hour period of play at the Darren Sammy National Stadium.
Ashwin and wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha will resume in the final session of the day with the West Indies seeking to press home the advantage after captain Jason Holder won the toss and chose to bowl first.
They exploited the helpful bowling conditions in the first hour of the match.
Shannon Gabriel made the first breakthrough and Joseph celebrated his first Test match with the prized wicket of Indian captain Virat Kohli.
Opening batsman Lokesh Rahul counter-attacked with an even 50 before falling to Chase’s off-spin just before lunch to break a 58-run partnership with Rahane.
Struggled
Challenged by the extra pace and bounce, Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan struggled to cope with the early hostility of Gabriel and Joseph, the 19-year-old who emerged as the star of the regional side’s triumph at the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh last February.
Dhawan gloved a lifting delivery from Gabriel to be caught down the leg-side by wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich and then Joseph made the vital breakthrough in just his third over in Test cricket.
His steepling bounce proved too difficult for Kohli to negotiate as he fended a catch to Darren Bravo at first slip.
Rahul and Rahane opted to play positively in seeking to steady the Indian innings and their tactics proved successful as the runs flowed at better than four runs per over.
However it was Chase who separated the third-wicket pair.
Having just reached the half-century mark with six fours off 65 balls, Rahul attempted to turn a delivery to the leg-side where Kraigg Brathwaite dived forward from short fine-leg to come up with the catch.
Leading 1-0 and needing to win the series 3-0 to displace Australia at the top of the international rankings, India dropped Cheteshwar Pujara to give Sharma his first match of the campaign.
They also omitted leg-spinner Amit Mishra and fast bowler Umesh Yadav in preference for left-arm orthodox slow bowler Ravindra Jadeja and seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Apart from introducing Joseph to Test cricket, the West Indies drafted in Leon Johnson at the top of the order for his first match in 19 months in place of the out-of-form Rajendra Chandrika.