Ravichandran Ashwin claimed the wicket of West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite for the third time in as many innings as the home side crawled to 174 for three in reply to India's first innings total of 438 at tea on the third day of the second and final Test at Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad on Saturday.

With the spinner's 11-wicket match haul leading the destruction of the Caribbean team in the first Test in Dominica a week earlier, Brathwaite and all in the West Indies top order faced Ashwin with exaggerated care on a benign surface which frustrated the Indian bowlers.

However Ashwin's guile and variations eventually got the better of the determined opening batsman, bowling him between pat and pad for 75. 

It was a typically stodgy Brathwaite effort over nearly five hours during which he faced 235 deliveries, stroking five fours and one six.

Jermaine Blackwood, who has curbed his natural aggression to the point of being almost scoreless, resumes in the final session alongside newcomer Alick Athanaze.

A rain-shortened first session was highlight by one debutant removing another as seamer Mukesh Kumar ended the first Test innings of Kirk McKenzie.

Starting the day at 86 for one, Brathwaite and McKenzie made serene progress almost to the end of the first hour when the left-hander wafted at a wide delivery from Kumar to give the 29-year-old his first Test wicket as he edged a catch to wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan.

Dismissed for 32 off 57 balls in an innings featuring four fours and a six, the 22-year-old's dejected walk back to the pavilion coincided with the arrival of steady showers which grew in intensity to force an early lunch interval.

str/dj