Amit Mishra shines even as pacers fail to impress against WICB President’s XI

BySaketh RVK, SportsCafe Editor

07/11/2016

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra was the pick of the Indian bowlers as he bagged four wickets, but the Indian fast bowlers looked patchy in the two-day warm up game at St.Kitts. After the Indian batsmen posted 258/6 in on the first day, the West Indies Board President’s XI scored 281/7 on the second day.

Brief scores: India 258/6 decl (Rohit Sharma 54*, Shikhar Dhawan 51, KL Rahul 50; Warrican 2-61)

West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI 281/7(Shai Hope 118 not out, Rajindra Chandrika 69; Amit Mishra 4/67).

After Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami began the proceedings with good pace and swing, with the former scalping Leon Johnson, they lost the plot and began to go wayward. They strayed down the leg-side too often or bowled wide outside off to take the pressure off the batsmen.

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This forced captain Kohli to introduce Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav into the attack, but the duo were too inconsistent and failed to get a breakthrough. Amit Mishra came in to bowl and had immediate impact. He got Chandrika and Jermaine Blackwood stumped before going on to pick two more wickets. Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav also picked a wicket each before the end of the day, while Ishant Sharma went wicket-less. Shai Hope starred for the WICB President’s XI with an unbeaten century with 15 fours after facing 229 balls.

India will play one warm-up game at the same venue from July 14th to 16th. The first Test between India and West Indies will begin on July 21 at Antigua.

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