Plan was to take the game deep, knew the boundaries would come: Chase

West Indies’ Roston Chase, who was Player of the Match against Papua New Guinea for his all-round showing, revealed that he consciously focused on taking the chase deep on a tricky Guyana surface since he knew the boundaries would come at the back end if the Windies managed to keep wickets in hand.

The PNG clash was supposed to be a cakewalk for West Indies on paper, but the hosts were in all sorts at one point, reeling at 97/5, chasing 137. However, despite the stumble, the efforts of Chase (42* off 27) and Andre Russell (15* off 9) took the Windies home with an over to spare.

Chase revealed that he had to alter his approach slightly due to the two-paced nature of the wicket.

“I just thought that the wicket was one that was a bit difficult to start on in terms of playing your strokes and being aggressive. So, I thought it was one that you just had to get in and give yourself a bit of time to get adjusted to the pace of the wicket and once you get in you would get away the ball after a while,” Chase said in the press conference post the match.

“For me, it was just to take a bit of time to get in because, watching on, all the batters today took a while before they really got the pace of the wicket and in terms of playing the strokes. 

“So, it was just that for me and then backing myself in the end to really take it deep. And then, as you said, put my foot on the gas. Obviously, we had the likes of [Romario] Shepherd and [Andre] Russell to come, so I never had any doubt that we would be able to get away the ball in the end. So that was just my mindset.”

On the day, just 273 runs were scored in 39 overs, with the two teams combinedly hitting just seven sixes. Spin especially proved tough to be put away, with Akeal Hosein (1/9), John Kariko (1/17), and Assad Vala (2/28) all choking the batters by bowling into the surface.

Chase, though, said that he was not surprised by the slow nature of the wicket as Guyana has historically dished out low-scoring encounters.

“Well, we're in Guyana. Guyana is naturally known for slow wickets so it wasn't really surprising for me to see the wicket play like that because it's a customary for the wicket to be slow but yeah, we just know what to expect when we come to these places and know how to use the conditions to our advantage,” the all-rounder said.

The knock on June 2 (Sunday) has all but sealed the place of Chase, who was in sumptuous form even before the T20WC, shining in both the home series against South Africa and the ‘A’ series against Nepal. The 32-year-old asserted that he is glad to see the hard work he’s put in pay off.

“Well, I'm full of confidence even before this knock. I mean, I had a good series against South Africa then I was on the A-team tour in Nepal and had a good series there. 

“And then I mean I've been putting in a lot of work back home and obviously in the camp before the South Africa series so it's just for me to just go there express myself when I get the chance and put everything that I put into practice into the game and entertain,” Chase said.

West Indies have four days off before taking on Uganda on June 7, once again in Guyana.

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