Roston Chase feels Gabriel could have taken a better decision

West Indies and Pakistan played the last day of the third test on Sunday. Pakistan secured their first test series win tin the Caribbean as a farewell gift to Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan. But the road was not easy for Pakistan, as Roston Chase decided not to throw his wicket, come what may. But at the end, he was left stranded at the non-striker end. Shannon Gabriel, the batsman, had a mad rush of boiling blood and decided to go for a big heave. He ended up giving his wicket to Yasir Shah in the last ball of the penultimate mandatory over.

Chase, unbeaten on 101, was stupefied with his looks transfixed at Gabriel. He later admitted that this century was the toughest in his career. Thanks to Chase, for cricketing hemisphere now knows once again that test can be gut-wrenching, adrenaline-rushing too. With 403 runs in 6 innings, he was the top run getter of the series. His average is over 100, with 2 centuries and 2 half-centuries.

Post-match press conference

“I wouldn’t say it’s up there with the other two but a century is a century. We ended up losing the match but this one was the hardest for me. The others were more fluent and the conditions were a lot easier but this one was really tough for me. The pitch was a slower one, you couldn’t play a lot of shots, the outfield was very slow and the bowlers really put the ball in good areas. This one was the toughest out of my few so far. I thought it was a fighting effort. It’s sad to see that it didn’t mean much in the end because we lost the match but I thought the guys showed a lot of guts and effort not only today but in the whole match. [We] even put ourselves in the chance of, maybe not winning but, at least drawing the series.” said a dejected Chase on the post-match press conference.

Chase admitted that Yasir Shah gave him a headache in the UAE last year where Shah got the upper-hand in three out of six innings. But Chase cemented his footmarks in the crease at the second innings of a series-deciding test. “I didn’t really do that well in Dubai, so after that series, I came home and worked on some of the things that I thought brought my shortfall in Dubai. Especially Yasir Shah got the better of me a lot and this was mainly because he was tying me down and then I was just falling to a bad shot because of the pressure.”

Chase gave Pakistani team two chances, but he was dropped on both occasion by debutant Hasan Ali. The West Indian crowd was chanting his name in Roseau, Dominica so as to give him the courage to tie the series. “It’s always good to hear people calling your name. So many guys are asking me if I’m actually from Dominica. I was always a big fan of the drums, so I love the drums and I love the Dominican fans.” said Chase.

Content with his performance

Chase admitted that he was happy with his performance. He said “Even though I’m always a confident guy, it does [add] a lot to see that I average a 100 in the series against a quality attack. I’m not going to let it get to my head and I’m going to go back home and the next Test series is England, so hopefully, I should be there. I’ll go and look at some footage of the English guys and see what weaknesses they have, what I’ll be looking to exploit and see if that can work. Work hard on those weaknesses so that I can put up some good performances in that series as well.”

Though he was happy with his own performance, he was dejected at Gabriel’s nonsensical shot. He wished that “he will take a better decision if he faces similar kind of situation again.” Though Pakistan won the match and the series, Chase has been outstanding for the Windies. The lone warrior of the home side deserves all the applause he is receiving from throughout the world.