Chase lauds batters despite missing out on historic Test series win over Pakistan

Despite losing the second Test to Pakistan, West Indies captain Roston Chase has hailed the team’s batsmen for their marked improvement during their last two Test series.

The Windies fell to an eight-wicket defeat inside four days at the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair, Port-of-Spain on Wednesday, resulting in the two-match series ending in a 1-1 draw.

Victory or a draw in the final match would have given them their first Test series win over Pakistan in 26 years, following their 90-run win in the opening Test at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.

Speaking in a post-match press conference, Chase admitted he was unhappy with the result.

“I’m disappointed because we had a good start to the series 1-0 up coming into this Test, and we were looking for another win or at least a draw to keep that advantage, but we didn’t see it through, so I’m a bit disappointed with the result.

“I don’t want to say that we misread the pitch, but we didn’t think it was going to spin as much from so early, so I think that is really where the problem came in and also my injury. We thought that I would have been able to bowl a lot more, but rushing back from the injury a bit too quickly and I was still in some pain in terms of bowling, so that was a bit of a dilemma for us,” Chase said.

However, Chase said the batters stood out in both the Test series against Sri Lanka – which the West Indies won 1-0 – and Pakistan.

He said they continued to improve by leaps and bounds.

“There’s always room for improvement, but I think that the batting is really stepping up to the plate now. For these past two series we’ve gotten over 300 runs in every first innings that we batted and that’s not something that we usually do; we tend to usually average around 220 or 250 maybe.

“But one thing that we really stressed on is trying to get that 300 total and we’ve been doing that consistently, so it’s now just for us to consistently do it over two innings and if not 300 runs, then to get maybe 220 to 250 in the second innings. On deteriorating pitches, especially in the Caribbean, that will be challenging for any team to come and chase, especially in a fourth innings,” Chase said.

CMC