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West Indies batsman Roston Chase was batting serenely on 31 during the second innings of the first Test against Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

The hazard of facing Yasir Shah on a gripping fifth-day surface was exacerbated by the rough that had long developed outside the right-hander’s leg-stump. The Pakistani leg-break bowler was doing his best to exploit the disturbed area. The batsman was doing his best to cope.


Shah aimed for the rough and found it; Chase made a sizable stride to leg and smacked the ball through the midwicket area for four. “Playing the shot against the spin!” exclaimed one commentator on television. “Chase dares to go against the turn,” one text commentator wrote. “How’s that for audacity?” went another.

Next ball the batsman attempted a similar shot to a delivery in the same vicinity. He was bowled.

His wicket was seen as justification for the scepticism surrounding the wisdom of his previous shot. But the shot was risky, I’d submit, not because it was played against the spin; rather, the hazard rested in the fact that with the ball landing on the rough area, it was impossible to predict its degree of turn and height of bounce. The shot therefore could not have been played with any reasonable level of certainty.

Next ball the batsman attempted a similar shot to a delivery in the same vicinity. He was bowled.

His wicket was seen as justification for the scepticism surrounding the wisdom of his previous shot. But the shot was risky, I’d submit, not because it was played against the spin; rather, the hazard rested in the fact that with the ball landing on the rough area, it was impossible to predict its degree of turn and height of bounce. The shot therefore could not have been played with any reasonable level of certainty.

Cricket experts are often heard chastising batsmen for playing against the spin. This is always held as dangerous and inadvisable. The right-handed batsman, for example, is encouraged to play the ball turning from off onto the leg-side. Hitting such a delivery back to off is to court danger. And pity the unfortunate batsman who gets out flouting this precept.

To consistently play against the spin is to violate cricketing orthodoxy. Pundits and experts often look askance at batsmen committing this transgression and coaches often berate their charges for doing it.