Prithvi Shaw continued his dominance over the West Indies bowlers as he smashed a swashbuckling 53-ball 70 on Day 2 of the second Test in Hyderabad. Shaw’s knock was comprised of 11 boundaries and 1 six.
Just when he was looking set to notch up his second successive Test ton, the 18-year-old played a 'silly' shot and threw away his wicket. Left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican bowled a full ball outside off to which Shaw couldn't resist and went hard on the drive. He couldn't keep it down and was caught at extra cover by Shimron Hetmyer.
After the day’s play, Shaw spoke to former India cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar and accepted that it was a ‘silly’ stroke. The teenage batting prodigy also said he would like to avoid it in his next outing.
"I was trying to hit it to the left of the fielder, but I didn't get close to the ball, was trying to play on the up (on his dismissal). I will not look to repeat this mistake once again. I can't brood about this dismissal, I will start from zero once again, it was a silly shot which I will try to avoid in the next innings, will not try to do differently in the next innings," Shaw quoted.
The Mumbaikar brought up his fifty off just 39 balls and thus became the eighth Indian to register 50-plus scores in his first two Test innings. It is worth mentioning here that Shaw has played a glorious knock of 134 on his Test debut against the Windies in Rajkot last week.
Speaking about his jaw-dropping innings, Prithvi said: "I was just trying to play my natural game, but unfortunately couldn't make it big, couldn't place the drive. I just wanted to play my natural game and play on merit. I don't want to think too much, don't want to get confused and get blank in my mind.”
"Gabriel and Holder were bowling with good pace, I wasn't trying to hit too hard, just looking for gaps, the ball wasn't swinging a lot, I was trying to place the balls in vacant areas," he added.
India ended the second day on 308/4 with vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane (75*) and wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant (85*) are still at the crease. West Indies had amassed 311 all-out in their first innings and thus Kohli and company are still trailing by 3 runs.
