Mumbai: India claimed the eight wickets required for victory without much fuss to complete a 2-0 series win over West Indies.
They also earned another 60 World Test Championship points to go top of the table.
West Indies began the fourth day requiring an unlikely 413 runs to win with eight wickets in hand, but with some showers forecast they might have hoped to worry the tourists, and did well to extend from 45/2 overnight to 159/4 after the day’s first interval.
That included a six-ball spell in which the hosts lost two wickets, with Roston Chase pinned lbw by Ravindra Jadeja and Shimron Hetmyer driving Ishant Sharma straight to extra cover, while they also had to recover from the loss of Darren Bravo, who was struck on the head while batting the previous evening and felt ill effects while batting even after the overnight rest.
He was replaced by Jermaine Blackwood under the newly implemented concussion substitute rule, making this the first time 12 players had batted in a team innings in Test cricket. Blackwood quickly got into his task, and he and Sharmarh Brooks put on West Indies’ only fifty stand of the series.
Jasprit Bumrah broke the partnership, nicking Blackwood off, but Brooks carried onto his maiden Test half-century before being run out by Virat Kohli’s swift turn and throw. His knock would remain West Indies only fifty of the series, with the hosts collapsing from 177/5 to 210 all out. Jason Holder struck some lusty blows in his 35-ball 39 before he became the last wicket to fall, bowled by Jadeja.
The victory took Kohli’s tally of wins as captain to 28, more than any other Indian Test skipper. For his century and half-century, Hanuma Vihari was named Player of the Match.
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