Mayank Agarwal falls after hitting 55, India 118/3 halfway second session on Day 1 of 2nd Test
Kingston, Aug 30: Opener Mayank Agarwal fell after scoring his third career half century while captain Virat Kohli was batting solid on 31 as India reached 118 for 3 midway the second session on the opening day of World Test Championships second match against the West Indies here today.
Agarwal departed at 55 after steadying the Indian innings with a solid batting display in his 127-ball knock from which he hit seven boundaries. His cut shot in the 41st over of the India innings went straight to first slip fielder Rahkeem Cornwall.
Kohli, on his part, was gaining in confidence after a watchful batting in the morning session. He has faced 74 deliveries so far from which he hit three boundaries. Ajinkya Rahane was giving him company on 2 from 12 balls at the drinks break -- which was called after 44 overs in the post-lunch session.
Agarwal and Kohli resumed the second session at the team score of 72 for 2 and added 69 runs from 24 overs for the third wicket.
Playing in his fourth Test, the 28-year-old Agarwal reached to his fifty as he edged a Kemar Roach delivery to the boundary ropes.
Kohli took time to settle down on a tricky pitch as he took 16 balls to open his account during the morning session. He was tested by the tight bowling from the West Indians especially by debutant off-spinner Rakheem Cornwall.
Earlier, India laboured their way to 72 for 2 from 30 overs after opener K L Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara were dismissed cheaply in the opening session.
Rahul and Pujara were out for 13 and 6 respectively after India were put into bat on a Sabina Park pitch which had some grass on it.
After West Indies captain Jason Holder opted to field, Rahul and Agarwal negotiated the first half an hour without taking any risk on a tricky pitch.
Holder introduced himself in the seventh over and immediately got the breakthrough by having the wicket of Rahul to break the 32-run opening stand.
It was a peach of a delivery which jagged away from middle stump with Rahul edging it to Cornwall at first slip for a comfortable catch. Rahul hit two fours in his 26-ball innings.
Holder was getting the bounce and movement and debutant Cornwall made the Indians toil for runs with his tight off-spin bowling.
India were 36 for 1 in 13 overs at the drinks break.
Pujara, who came after Rahul's departure in the seventh over, struggled again as he took 15 deliveries to open his account and was finally out for 6 which came from 25 balls.
The bounce extracted by 26-year-old off-spinner Cornwall, who stands at 6ft and 5 inches and weights more than 140kg, did brought Pujara's downfall as he hit straight to the hands of Shamarh Brooks.
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3 US troops killed, 5 seriously wounded during Iran attacks, military says
Washington (AP): Three American service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during the US attacks on Iran, the military said Sunday, marking the first American casualties in a major offensive that has sparked retaliation from the Islamic Republic.
US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, announced the deaths in a post on X but did not say when and where they occurred. The statement said “several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions” and were going to return to duty.
Central Command described the situation “as fluid” and said it would withhold the identities of the service members who were killed for 24 hours after their families were notified.
The US military also denied Iranian claims that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was struck with ballistic missiles, saying on X that the “missiles launched didn't even come close.”
President Donald Trump had warned that American troops could be killed or injured in the operation.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties,” the Republican president said in a video address released early Saturday. “That often happens in war. But we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future.”
Following the US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other leaders, Iran's counterattacks have struck US bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israeli and American military installations.
Before the strikes, Trump had built up the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades. The arrival of the Lincoln and three accompanying guided-missile destroyers at the end of January bolstered the number of warships in the region.
The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and four accompanying destroyers later were dispatched from the Caribbean Sea to head to the Middle East.
The Ford was part of the US raid in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges. The operation in January claimed no American lives but left seven US troops with gunshot wounds and shrapnel-related injuries.
One of those injured received the Medal of Honor during Trump's State of the Union address last week. Trump said Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover piloted the lead CH-47 Chinook helicopter that descended on the “heavily protected military fortress” where Maduro was staying.
Trump has launched several military operations during his second term, including strikes on members of the Islamic State group in Syria in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter in December.
The US military has also struck IS forces in Nigeria, after Trump accused the West African country's government of failing to rein in the targeting of Christians.
