KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Right-hander Roston Chase stroked a maiden, unbeaten Test hundred in only his second international game, inspiring a massive batting effort which helped West Indies frustrate India and earn a draw in the second Test here yesterday.
Tottering on 48 for four at the start – still 256 runs behind – and with the odds of saving the game stocked heavily against them, the 24-year-old Chase stepped up to unfurl a superb, unbeaten 137 as West Indies batted the entire final day to pile up 388 for six at Sabina Park.
Mixing an organised defence with bold attacking strokes, the phlegmatic Barbadian faced 269 deliveries in a knock lasting just shy of six hours, while striking 14 fours and a six.
Energised by his performance, wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich joined the fray with a classy career-best 74 while captain Jason Holder carved out an unbeaten 64 and Jermaine Blackwood, an aggressive 63. Though the innings revolved around Chase, it was the audacious Blackwood who put the Indians on the backfoot early with a typically charismatic innings – his second half-century of the game following his first innings 62.
The right-handed Jamaican, unbeaten on three at the start, struck nine fours and two sixes in an innings requiring only 54 deliveries.
Importantly, he put on 93 for the fifth wicket with Chase – who faced his first delivery at the start of play – as West Indies went on the attack to plunder an amazing 167 runs in the morning session.
Blackwood took two boundaries from the third over of the morning from seamer Mohammed Shami but really opened up two overs later, punching the same bowler to the long-off boundary, smashing him for a straight six before taking the aerial route through mid-off for another four, in an over which gushed 15 runs.
He raised his eighth Test fifty in style, skipping down to off-spinner Ravi Ashwin and clearing the ropes back overhead to move to 49 before picking up a leg-side single to reach his landmark.
However, Blackwood perished on the stroke of the drinks break when he pushed forward to Ashwin and was taken low down at short leg by Cheteshwar Pujara at 141 for five.
But India’s hopes of making further inroads were then dashed as Chase led a fantastic Windies batting display that saw only one more wicket fall for the remaining two sessions.
Firstly, he anchored a 144-run, sixth wicket stand with Dowrich which saw West Indies safely to lunch at 215 for five, before staging a 103-run stand for the seventh wicket with Holder which spanned the tea break.
Surviving a confident appeal for a leg-side catch off the day’s first ball, Chase hardly put a foot wrong thereafter. His first scoring shot was a whip to the mid-wicket boundary off leg-spinner Amit Mishra in the day’s second over and he repeated the stroke in the bowler’s next over, to move into double figures. Once Blackwood departed, he assumed responsibility for the innings. He punched Mishra to the mid-on boundary and swept him over the ropes at square leg in the same over, and a drive to the mid-on boundary off the same bowler a couple of overs later brought up his half-century, 45 minutes before lunch.
Unbeaten on 70 at the interval, Chase gathered runs quickly on the resumption. He entered the 90s by stroking Mishra to the cover boundary and repeated the shot next ball to move to 97.
He eventually reached three figures 42 minutes before tea when he turned Ashwin square for a single, becoming only the fourth West Indies player after Denis Atkinson, Collie Smith and Sir Garry Sobers, to make a hundred and take a five-wicket haul in the same Test – and the first in 50 years.
Dowrich, meanwhile, on 33 at lunch, played aggressively afterward to raise his third Test half-century in the sixth over after lunch but perished to an unfortunate decision when he too seemed poised for a maiden century.
He had carved out six fours and a six in a breezy 114-ball knock when he was adjudged lbw to Mishra, pushing forward in the third over after the drinks break – with TV replays showing a huge inside edge onto the pad.
West Indies remained resolute, however, and Chase and Holder combined to carry the side to tea at 319 for six – a lead of 15 runs.
With Chase understandably tiring, Holder provided the bulk of the scoring in the final session, hitting eight fours and a six in an innings requiring 99 deliveries as the Windies extended their lead, further cancelling out any chance of an India victory.
And with all hope extinguished, captain Virat Kohli shook hands on the encounter with just over half-hour left in the session. Seamer Mohammed Shami (2-82) and Mishra (2-92) picked up two wickets apiece.
Scoreboard
WEST INDIES 1st Innings 196
INDIA 1st Innings 500-6 decl.
WEST INDIES 2nd innings
(overnight 48 for four)
K Brathwaite c Rahul b Mishra 23
R Chandrika b Sharma 1
DM Bravo c Rahul b Mohammed Shami 20
M Samuels b Mohammed Shami 0
J Blackwood c Pujara b Ashwin 63
R Chase not out 137
+S Dowrich lbw b Mishra 74
*J Holder not out 64
Extras (lb2, w1, nb3) 6
TOTAL (6 wkts, 104 overs) 388
Did not bat: M Cummins, D Bishoo, S Gabriel.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-41, 3-41, 4-48, 5-141, 6-285.
Bowling: Sharma 18-3-56-1 (nb2), Shami 19-3-82-2, Mishra 25-6-90-2 (nb1), Yadav 12-2-44-0 (w1), Ashwin 30-4-114-1.
Result: Match drawn.
Series: India lead four-match series 1-0.
Man-of-the-Match: Roston Chase.
Toss: West Indies.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, I Gould; TV – N Duguid.
