WI could’ve made room for an extra spinner, admits Chase after loss to Pakistan

Port of Spain, Aug 6 (IANS) Following their eight-wicket defeat to Pakistan in the second Test at the Queen’s Park Oval, West Indies captain Roston Chase admitted that his team got their bowling balance wrong and could have played another spinner on a pitch where the slower bowlers dominated.

On a pitch where spinners accounted for 20 of the 28 wickets to fall, West Indies fielded only left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican. Chase, who usually bowls off-spin, was hampered by an ongoing finger injury that limited his bowling capabilities. West Indies had another spinner in Joshua Bishop, but they didn’t make him play.

“I don’t want to say we misread the pitch, but we didn’t think that it was going to spin as much from so early. So I think that that is where the problem came in. And also my injury, I think that we thought I would have been able to bowl a lot more, but rushing back from the injury a bit too quickly, and I was still in some pain in terms of bowling.

“So I think that was a bit of a dilemma for us. Captaining the side, I would never leave myself out to play anyone else. If I am outright injured and can’t play, then I would sit out. But once I can still play as a batsman, I will always play. But I do think that we could have made room for an extra spinner, but it wouldn’t have been (instead of) myself at all,” said Chase to reporters at the conclusion of the series.

Reflecting on the match, Chase felt the fast bowlers failed to adjust quickly enough to the conditions, allowing Pakistan to build a dominant position early in their first innings. “I think that we took a bit too long to adapt to the conditions. The wicket wasn’t one that was assisting the fast bowlers as much like (the) Brian Lara (Stadium in Tarouba, which hosted the first Test).

“So I think it’s a case where we needed to be more patient and just try to defend one side of the wicket and just try to squeeze them as much as possible into making a mistake, but we still tried to blast them out per se, and I think that gave them too many runs before we really locked it down and stuck to the plan and were a bit more disciplined.”

West Indies were also pegged back by a leg injury to all-rounder Justin Greaves while batting, which ruled him out of bowling during the match. “It was a big miss for me because when things tend to start straying away, Justin is a guy that I can always call on to come and pull it back.

“He’s that guy that he’s more of a holding bowler, but he holds so well that it creates so much pressure that he tends to get wickets as well, by batsmen making mistakes, and we saw it in the last game – once he gets going, he’s really hard to stop. So, it was a big miss for us as well with that injury. So I just hope that he can get back to full fitness as quick as possible,” he stated.

At the same time, Chase was full of praise for Warrican, who bowled 46 overs in Pakistan’s first innings to claim a six-wicket haul. “I thought his effort was a magnificent one. I mean, he bowled really long for those wickets, and I thought his patience was up to par.

“I thought he really stuck to the task and just put the ball in front of the batsman, put the ball in front of the batsman and allowed the pitch to work for him, and he finally reaped the reward. So I want to say congrats to Jomel Warrican and especially for a guy who hasn’t been playing as many matches given that we tend to go with the pacers more often than not.”

–IANS

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