Ravindra Jadeja Surpasses Kapil Dev, Equals Courtney Walsh To Achieve Historic High In 1st ODI vs West Indies | Cricket News

Indian spin prowess was in full display on Thursday. Ravindra Jadeja tightened the noose and Kuldeep Yadav went for the final kill as an out of sorts West Indies were bowled out for 114 in just 23 overs by India in the opening ODI in Barbados. Hardik Pandya (1/17 in 3 overs), starting with the new ball alongside debutant Mukesh Kumar (1/22 in 5 overs), set the tone with a tight first spell before Jadeja and Kuldeep finished the innings in a jiffy.

Skipper Shai Hope‘s 43 was the top score for the hosts as only two other batters were able to cross the double digit mark. Once Jadeja (6-0-37-3) and Kuldeep (3-2-6-4) operated in tandem, the West Indies team didn’t have the quality to survive on a track that had extra bounce to trouble the batters.

With Jadeja’s three wickets, he now has 44 scalps against West Indies in ODIs. He surpassed the great Kapil Dev (43 wickets). Jadeja is now equal with West Indies great Courtney Walsh for most wickets in India-West Indies ODIs.

Kyle Mayers wanted to free himself and only managed a slog that went to skipper Rohit Sharma at mid-on while Jadeja timed his jump to perfection at point to latch on to an Alick Athanaze (22 off 18 balls) slash after a brief but adventurous stay at the crease.

Shardul Thakur (1/14 in 3 overs) then bowled a perfect in-cutter to clan up Brandon King (17) as the gulf in standard was pretty evident, and why West Indies failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup was as clear as daylight.

With the pitch offering a bit of pace, both Jadeja and Kuldeep were able to hurry the batters as Shimron Hetmyer‘s (11 off 19 balls) struggles were apparent while trying an ugly lap-scoop off Jadeja.

In case of another T20 star Rovman Powell, he couldn’t gauge the turn that Jadeja got off the surface while Kuldeep forced West Indies skipper to try an uncharacteristic reverse sweep and embarrassingly get yorked in the process.

Kuldeep’s googlies (one that turns away from right handers) was unplayable for most of the Caribbean batters.

Most of the bowling changes made by Rohit worked wonderfully well.

With PTI inputs