Chase heeds some wise words to grind down India
Chetan Narula watches the West Indies regain some pride with a draw in the second Test in Jamaica
Ahead of the first Test in Antigua, Indian vicecaptain Ajinkya Rahane gave his team a warning. “The wickets are quite slow here in the West Indies,” he said.“If someone is used to scoring 100 runs in 120 balls, here he will have to bat for 200-250 balls to get those runs.”
Two days later, when Ravichandran Ashwin celebrated his third Test hundred he said he had heeded those words.
“Ajinkya told me that my aim should be to bat for 200 deliveries,” said the off-spinner, newly promoted to No.6. In fact he faced 253 balls and scored 113 runs.
That was in stark comparison to the West Indies. Four of their top five batsmen in Antigua faced 96 deliveries in the first innings, and only 139 in the second.
West Indies’ skipper Jason Holder reflected on that ahead of this second Test in Jamaica.
“We are a very inexperienced side,” he said.“My message to this young team is to play for pride, both for the team and as an individual.We must strive to be better and learn how to build partnerships.We just need to do better than the last match.”
To most of their fans, those words seemed like throwing in the towel before the first ball was bowled.
West Indies were reeling at 7-3 in the first innings at Sabina Park and 48-4 in the second.Yet, they managed to save this second Test through some gritty batting by their lower-middle order. The key, to borrow from Rahane’s book, was to play out as many deliveries as possible.
Playing in his second Test, Roston Chase struck a wonderful 137 not out, facing 269 balls over the course of just over three sessions on day five.
He was at the crease for a while on day four when Indian bowlers were on top thanks to prevailing stormy conditions. Then he batted, and batted some more, throughout day five as the hosts held on for a draw.
West Indies have been prone to collapses through the four innings in this series so far. But through insuperable patience and steely grit, Chase saw them through to the finish line.
He wasn’t alone in this wonderful feat, though. Shane Dowrich played an excellent hand, as did Holder himself. Together they faced another 213 deliveries between them. Even so, the mercurial Jermaine Blackwood made a purposeful impact on the day, blasting a half-century off 41 balls, so following up his first innings’ half-century off 47 balls.
Later, Holder spoke about how he had told Blackwood to play his natural game. Through their two contrasting performances, Chase and Blackwood defined the willpower of a young side pushing for improvement.
If the former was guarded in his shot selection, the latter seized on every opportunity to score. If one was set on counter-punching the opposition, the other was content at playing for time, the real opponent on this fifth day.
Thanks to their efforts, for the first time in four innings, the five-pronged Indian attack wilted.
That’s not to say that they did much wrong. The Sabina Park pitch was helpful for the first three days. But constant drizzle on day four and sunshine beating down on day five didn’t erode its surface as much as Ashwin and company would have liked. In fact, it became easier for batting.
Indian captain Virat Kohli lamented: “The hardness of the ball was a factor. On these pitches when the ball is not hard enough, play goes dead for 25-30 overs.”
It wasn’t an improved effort from the West Indies batsmen alone; their attack bowled far better compared to Antigua.
At no point did the Indian batting line-up look like getting a free hand at scoring. KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara had to toil hard to get their partnership going; Kohli couldn’t get his boundaries flowing and Holder bowled the best spell of this series so far to Rahane on day three, the batsman escaping thanks only to a dropped catch at midwicket.
India were made to work for their runs, and the time factor helped West Indies immensely, given that 120 overs were lost due to a rain storm.
“We only wanted to bat once, and you can’t really look at the forecast and take decisions,” said Indian coach Anil Kumble.“If you looked at the forecast on day three, it was supposed to rain the whole day, and even on day four it was supposed to rain. So you can’t really look at the forecast and decide what you need to do.“
Indian skipper Kohli didn’t turn up for the customary post-match Press conference. Possibly he was still fuming that the umpires didn’t change the ball despite many complaints about its shape.
Or, maybe, it was sheer frustration that his five-pronged attack couldn’t take six wickets on a day five pitch with 98 overs available to them.
Either way, India went away with lingering doubts.West Indies’ will be the happier dressing room even though the visitors still hold a 1-0 lead in this series.
The Indians have cancelled their snorkelling sessions in the waters of St Lucia and instead will be conducting a post-mortem in the coming days.
It wasn’t an improved effort from the West Indies batsmen alone; their attack bowled far better compared to Antigua. At no point did the Indian batting line-up look like getting a free hand