Mumbai, Jun 3: The India A side had a good start to their tour of West Indies when they bowled out the hosts for just 252 runs in the first innings of the first Test being played between the two sides. Medium-pacer Shami Ahmed and legspinner Rahul Sharma took three wickets each to limit the hosts' batting effort on Day 1 of the four-day contest.

It was an ordinary batting effort by the West Indies A top order. Barring Jonathan Carter, who struck a brisk 47-ball 35 batting at No. 5, none of their other top six batsmen could go past an individual score of 25. With Shami Ahmed doing most of the early damage, the hosts were reduced to 126 for seven and were threatening to implode for a score below 150.

However, some determined rearguard action by wicketkeeper-batsman Devon Thomas, batting at No.7, and captain Veerasammy Rampaul, batting at No. 9, took West Indies past 200. Thomas (57) and Rampaul (66) stitched together a 92-run stand for the eighth wicket that saw both batsmen also reach their respective half-centuries.

Rahul Sharma finally dismissed both batsmen towards the end of day’s play to bring an end to the hosts’ innings in 87.3 overs. Sharma finished with figures of three for 73 from 22.3 overs while Ahmed’s figures read 16-4-43-3. Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up two wickets while Ashok Dinda and Rohit Sharma picked up a wicket each.