ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Captain Jason Holder has credited batsman Roston Chase as an “exceptional” player and says he has brought important balance to the West Indies Test side.
He was speaking after Chase struck an unbeaten 101 on Sunday to help West Indies come within a whisker of drawing the decisive final Test against Pakistan at Windsor Park here. The Caribbean side eventually succumbed to a 101-run defeat late in the day with a single over left in the contest.
“He’s brought balance to the side. He’s given us something with both bat and ball,” Holder told reporters.
“His bowling goes unnoticed sometimes but I thought he did a hell of a job in this Test match as well. He came in at crucial points and got wickets for us. He showed guts obviously when he batted and showed good maturity.
“[There were] a lot of positives coming from Roston. I’ve obviously played a lot of cricket with him and I remember the Test match we saved in Jamaica when he got a hundred and I was asked a similar question.
Batsman Roston Chase … has brought balance to the West Indies side.
“He’s just an exceptional player for me. He’s one of the few players we have right now averaging 40 and above in Test match cricket and I can see him holding that average or even surpassing it.”
The hundred was Chase’s second straight following his 131 in the second Test at Kensington Oval in his homeland Barbados earlier this month.
He finished the series with 403 runs at an average of 100 and was the only batsmen on either side to finish with over 400 runs.
Holder said while Chase was a bright spot, the top order had not lived up to expectations, and also said the Windies fielding needed improvement.
“We need to hit the processes. I’ve spoken a lot about our first innings total; we still haven’t gotten the first innings total we’ve been looking for. Our top order has been relatively inconsistent so we need some consistency there,” he pointed out.
“If there is one area I can really, really highlight is the fast bowlers and the spinners as well. We’ve bowled our hearts out in this series on some pretty flat pitches and credit must be given to the bowling unit.
“Obviously another area we can improve on is our fielding. We’ve dropped a few chances here and there which pretty much cost us in most of the Test matches we’ve played [in the series].”
West Indies lost the three-match series 2-1 following an opening seven-wicket defeat at Sabina Park in Jamaica last month and a convincing 106-run victory in the second Test.
And though the series defeat was the Windies’ sixth on the trot, Holder said there were signs his side were making small leaps.
“We said it in the dressing room – it’s the first time in a little while coming into [the final match of] a three-Test series that we were one-all, having a chance to win the series,” he stressed.
“That in itself is a big positive for us. From here we just need to keep pressing forward, spend some more time on the process, keep working hard in practice leading up to games and make sure we learn from it and execute in games when these scenarios come again.”