A stubborn sixth wicket partnership between Ravichandran Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha rescued India to a respectable total after being asked to bat first in the third Test against the West Indies. Coming together after the team was reduced to 126/5 in the second session of the opening day, India’s sixth wicket pair batted for 72.2 overs, in the process adding 213 runs.
During the course of their six-plus hours association, both Ashwin and Saha reached the three-figure mark. While Ashwin brought up his fourth Test century, Saha battled the conditions and some testing bowling to score his maiden Test hundred. This was the first time in the history of Indian cricket that the batsmen batting at numbers six and seven had scored centuries in the same innings.
One must appreciate how well both Ashwin and Saha applied themselves on both the days. On day one with their team in trouble, they took the cautious approach to resurrect the innings, before feasting on the second new ball. On the second morning, they once again reined themselves in and batted out the entire morning session, scoring at the rate of 3.28 runs per over.
Ashwin Relishing The West Indies Challenge
Interestingly, all four of Ashwin’s Test centuries have come against the same opponent – West Indies. He now joins an illustrious club of Indian batsmen who have scored four or more hundreds against West Indies. What’s incredible is that he has needed only 9 innings against the West Indies to notch up the four centuries!
With this century Ashwin now has stupendous numbers against the West Indies; he is one of 33 batsmen in the world to have scored 4 or more Test hundreds against the West Indies. With his 118 at Gros Islet, the Tamil Nadu lad has now scored more runs against the West Indies than against any other opponent, and averages 63.62 from 8 Test matches against the men from the Caribbean.
Saha Puts The Lid On Questions About His Batting
Prior to the series, there were questions asked if Wriddhiman Saha’s batting skills were adequate for the Test level. The Bengal stumper, who has a first-class batting average in excess of 43, has answered those questions in the best possible manner – by scoring a Test hundred in difficult circumstances.
Saha’s century was a special effort; it was his maiden century in Test cricket and is one of the handful of centuries scored by Indian wicket-keepers in overseas Test matches. Prior to Saha, only three other Indian wicket-keepers had scored Test hundreds away from home.
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