Much like Cotterell's opening spell, the West Indies' batting, too, was all over the place on a dry Eden surface where the odd ball kept low. India's openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay had no problem whatsoever in negotiating a dozen overs, raking up 37 runs in the process, to take pole position.
Shami, who became the 22nd Indian player to make his Test debut at the Eden Gardens, bowled with lot of heart on a docile track that didn't provide any lateral movement. The Bengal pacer's maiden wicket was a gift from Kieran Powell. The left-handed opener, having successfully negotiated the new ball for 14 overs, tried an audacious pull off a bouncer that pitched on the off-stump and ended up top-edging it to mid-off.
However, there was nothing fortuitous about Shami's next three wickets as he pegged back the stumps on each occasion, cutting the ball back into his victims and raising both arms in delirious celebration.
Even Sachin joined the back-slapping brigade as Bengal cricket's latest import from UP justified the faith placed in him by skipper MS Dhoni, whose decision to leave out Umesh Yadav surprised many. It was, however, no surprise to see Rohit Sharma being handed his debut cap by the Little Master before the match as India went in with just four frontline bowlers.
With West Indies' batsmen finding different ways to get out (4 bowled, 1 run out, 1 caught & bowled, 1 lbw, 1 caught at slip, 2 caught in the outfield), Dhoni didn't have to call upon Rohit to bowl off spin, but the skipper's instinctive move to give Sachin an over paid immediate dividends. Brought on to bowl from the High Court end just before the tea break, Sachin trapped young Shane Shillingford leg-before wicket with his fourth delivery as the batsman padded up.
Others hardly fared any better, as right from Chris Gayle to the sure-footed Shivnarine Chanderpaul, all got out either playing poor shots or not offering one. Gayle gave Vijay catching practice at second slip off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who somehow got the new ball to move away from the left-hander.
For two hours, Darren Bravo (23) reminded Eden fans of Brian Lara before running himself out in a horrible mix-up with Chanderpaul. Maron Samuels, who appeared to be in a tearing hurry, was dropped by Dhoni off Pragyan Ojha on 60, but couldn't make it count. Shami went through his defence like knife through butter to hit his middle stump. Samuels' quickfire 65 off 98 balls was the top score of the innings.
Shami was at it again in his next over as he got one to nip back and uproot Denesh Ramdin's leg stump before bringing the curtain down on the innings by uprooting Cotterel's off stick, but not before the spinners had combined to snare three wickets.
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