WI strike early breakthroughs; India reduced to 74 for 3 at lunch

St John's, Antigua, June 2 (UNI) West Indies made early breakthroughs as India were reduced to 74 for three at lunch in the first Test of the four-match series here today.

India lost the wickets of Wasim Jaffer (1) and Virender Sehwag (36) in the first hour's play. Dwayne Bravo struck just before lunch snaring Laxman as India looked to struggle on a pitch that offered good bounce and carry.

At lunch Dravid was batting on 6 and Yuvraj Singh was yet to open his account.

India left out Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan and chose to play with a combination of six batsmen and four bowlers. S Sreesanth (2 Tests), Munaf Patel (2 Tests) and debutant VRV Singh would be part of Indian seam attack that appears the most inexperienced pace attack in a long time.

Indian skipper Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat first.

But India had a disastrous start when Jaffer was nicely done in by Fidel Edwards in the third over of the day.

Edwards bowled a couple of deliveries on the leg side and followed it with a short on that looked like going down the leg side but shaped up and carried a thin nick to wicketkeeper Ramdin.

Virender Sehwag looked comfortable on a pitch where ball was coming nicely on to bat. He twice played Collymore to the leg side boundary but just when Sehwag looked set to play a long innings, he threw away his wicket. He played at an away going delivery from Collymore and edged to first slip Lara for a comfortable catch.

Sehwag made 36 runs of 37 balls. India were then at 51 for two.

VVS Laxman who came to bat at number three looked his fluent best. He played a couple of wristy boundaries to race to 29. India needed a big partnership at this stage. But he flattered to deceive.

Like Sehwag, Laxman too flashed at a delivery outside off stump and was snared gleefully by keeper Ramdin off Bravo.

West Indies attack didn't look menacing but the bowlers kept a tight off stump line that was rewarded. Both Sehwag and Laxman were culprit throwing away their wickets after good starts.

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