West Indies allrounder Roston Chase called his fighting century on the final day of the series against Pakistan the “toughest” of his career, after he ran out of partners with only one more over to see out a draw in Roseau.
He was left unbeaten on 101, his third Test century, when Yasir Shah bowled Shannon Gabriel with the last ball of the penultimate over of the Test.
“I wouldn’t say it’s up there with the other two but a century is a century,” Chase said after the match. “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.”
Chase recalled how Yasir had dismissed him in three out of six innings in the UAE last year, when and he had averaged 22.50 in the three Tests. In this series, Chase was out to Yasir twice in six innings but the batsman said he had found a way to counter the legspinner.
“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,” Chase said. “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.
“When I went back home, something I really tried to work on was my sweep shot because that would put him off a little and change up the field and give me a little bit more scoring options. I thought that really was the key, seeing that he was there all series, so once I got through him it was a little easier for me to play the other bowlers.”
Chase’s hundred was not chanceless though. He was dropped twice by the debutant Hasan Ali, and then Mohammad Abbas had him caught in the slips on 92 but replays showed the bowler had overstepped. He was cheered on by the crowd in Roseau.
“It’s always good to hear people calling your name,” Chase said. “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.”
With 403 runs in six innings, Chase finished the series on top of the run-scorers’ list, averaging 100.75 with two centuries and two half-centuries. No other batsman made more than 300.
“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,” he said. “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.”
