Windies men open tour of India with warm-up against BCCI President’s XI

The West Indies Senior Men’s Team officially opened their Tour of India with a two-day warm-up match against a BCCI President’s XI at the Reliance Cricket Stadium in Vadodara, Gujarat.

In humid conditions, the BCCI’s XI won the toss and elected to bat first in a 90-over per day contest. Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal opened the batting for the BCCI XI, while the WINDIES, Captained by Kraigg Brathwaite opened the bowling with Shannon Gabriel. Shaw was the first to go when he was caught by Shimron Hetmyer off Gabriel for 8. Hanuma Vihari was caught behind 13 runs later off Shermon Lewis with the score on 40.

Mayank Agarwal and Captain Karun Nair then combined for a 92-run partnership with Agarwal the aggressor of the pair. However, he fell ten runs short of a century when Devendra Bishoo had him caught by Hetmyer for 90. Nair though held his own, striking 5-fours on his way to 29 before Gabriel retuned to the bowling attack and had him caught by Bishoo.

Then came the mammoth 113-run partnership between Shreyas Iyer and Ankit Bawne. The pair took a particular liking to Devendra Bishoo. Between them they struck 5-sixes and 18-fours. However, Bishoo had the last laugh, as he picked up the wicket of Iyer for 61. The score now 258/5.

Bawne was joined in the middle by Smit Patel and the pair took the BCCI XI past 300 with Bawne reaching triple figures. The BCCI XI ended their 90 overs on 360/6, with Patel being the last man out for 15, caught in the deep by Shane Dowrich off Bishoo. Bawne remained on 116 not out.

The WINDIES toiled hard in the field in very humid Gujarati conditions. Devendra Bishoo finished with figures of 3/104 from 21 overs, while Shannon Gabriel had 2/41 from 8 overs and Shermon Lweis 1/13 from 10 overs.

At the close of play, Kraigg Brathwaite who captained the WINDIES SAID “I think it was a good first day for the team, first game here in India, it was quite hot but I thought the guys stuck it out quite well. The ball wasn’t spinning as much as we anticipated so getting six wickets was a good effort from us. We probably could’ve contained a bit more runs from the spinners but I think it was a decent day. We have to make sure that we stick to our plan when we chase the 360-run total tomorrow, because the wicket still looks decent for us to bat on.”

The match continues on Sunday, with the WINDIES chasing 361 from 90-overs for victory.

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