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‘Roston showed why he should be playing Test cricket’
- Updated: August 4, 2016
Going into West Indies’ second innings at Sabina Park, Roston Chase, the batsman, was still an unknown to most cricket fans around the world; in his three previous Test innings, he had only managed a top score of 23. But while his unbeaten, match-saving 137 was a bolt out of the blue to most observers, it wasn’t to his captain Jason Holder, who spent the final session-and-a-half of the Test match batting alongside him.
“Roston is one of many things,” Holder said, at the end of the Test match. “He is a character. People don’t know Roston off the field but he is a fighter. I played all my cricket throughout my entire life with Roston – junior cricket, [Under-] 13, 15, 17, 19, West Indies A and now West Indies senior team. I have honestly enjoyed playing with Roston because, the character he is, and you know the way he plays cricket.
“He is a very good fellow, he may come across lackadaisical and lazy and smooth but he is a wonderful individual. It’s nothing new to me, to see this kind of performance from Roston, because I know what he can offer, and credit to the selectors for having the faith in him and giving him the opportunity. Credit also must go to Roston for showing why he should be playing Test cricket.”
Chase batted through all of day five, putting on 93 with Jermaine Blackwood for the fifth wicket, 144 with Shane Dowrich for the sixth, and an unbroken 103 with Holder for the seventh. West Indies only lost two wickets, and got on top of India for the first time in the series.
“We got a really good partnership from Blackwood and Chase at the beginning of the day,” Holder said. “That set up the game for us, laid the foundations for the entire day. Then Shane Dowrich came out and played an outstanding knock, tough luck to be given out at that stage [adjudged lbw despite inside-edging the ball], but I thought his partnership with Roston was very, very crucial, and I just came out and continued to focus and made sure I was there at the end.
“I think a lot of credit must be given to Roston. To come in his second Test match and play the way he did, in these circumstances, full credit to him. I just hope he continues on in this vein. He knows that this is just the start, and hopefully he can have a long-lasting career for the West Indies.”
While West Indies could take a lot of positives from the Test, including the effort of the bowlers to keep India’s scoring rate down even as they piled up 500, Holder said it was important for them to build on this performance and not revert to old ways.
“At the beginning of this game, as I said in the press conference, it’s all about improvement for us. It’s a young side, I don’t want to expect leaps and bounds from this group so soon, but it’s just important that we continue to improve.
“We think, with a performance like this, it’s important we don’t fall back into old habits, that we just don’t take two steps backwards. It’s important we just keep looking for ways to improve. I asked the bowlers to be a lot more …
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