Tagenarine Chanderpaul (207 not out) turned his maiden Test century into a double while captain Kraigg Brathwaite hit 182 as the West Indies took the upper hand against Zimbabwe in the first Test at Queens Sports Club.
At stumps on Day III, Zimbabwe were three down for 114 in reply to the Windies’ 447/6 declared.
Zimbabwe were off to a solid start with openers Innocent Kaia (59 batting) and Tanunurwa Makoni (33) stitching a 63-run stand.
Pacer Alzarri Joseph gave the Windies the breakthrough when he dismissed Makoni before left-arm orthodox Gudakesh Motie and skipper Brathwaite struck late in the final session on Monday.
Motie picked up Chamu Chibhabha while Brathwaite cleaned up his counterpart Craig Ervine in what turned out to be the last ball of the day.
Earlier, Tagenarine batted for 596 minutes, having stitched a mammoth opening stand of 336 with Brathwaite. His unbeaten knock was dotted with 16 fours and three sixes.
Brathwaite, on the other hand, hit 18 boundaries.
For the home team, leg-spinner Brandon Mavuta took 5/140.
Brief scores: West Indies 447/6 decl. (T. Chanderpaul 207 n.o., K. Brathwaite 182; B. Mavuta 5/140). Zimbabwe 114/3 (I. Kaia 59 batting; A. Joseph 1/25). At stumps, Day III.
Written with AP/PTI inputs
Bengal mull 2 spinners
Calcutta: Bengal may include two spinners in their XI for the Ranji Trophy semi-final against defending champions Madhya Pradesh in Indore beginning on Wednesday.
The conditions at the Holkar Stadium in Indore are unlikely to be pace-friendly and keeping that in mind, Bengal have brought off-spinner all-rounder Karan Lal back into their squad from the U-25 team.
There’s a good possibility of Lal returning to partner Abhimanyu Easwaran upfront in place of Kazi Junaid Saifi, who failed in both innings of the quarter-final game. Bengal are also open to including left-arm spinner Pradipta Pramanik in place of seamer all-rounder Akash Ghatak.
“It seems to be a low bounce pitch, so we need to finalise our XI accordingly,” a squad member said.
A STAFF REPORTER
