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HEADLINE: Chase 98* ensures India don't have everything their way

 
CaribbeanCricket.com 2018-10-12 11:19:09 

When Roston Chase had addressed the press a day before the match, he reckoned the feeling in the Windies camp was that they needed the opposition to punch them first before they could land one of their own. If India's total in excess of 600 runs in the first Test, followed by Windies' capitulation in back-to-back innings was a blow that struck the visitors hard, Chase was at the forefront of a counter-punch effort that helped Windies end Day 1 of the second Test in Hyderabad on a positive note.

Having lost half their side for 113 runs, Chase led a spirited fightback with his unbeaten 98, supported well by Shane Dowrich and Jason Holder, as the visitors went into stumps at 295 for 7, having lasted beyond 80 overs for the first time in eight innings in India. On a day when India managed to bowl 95 overs, it was the lower middle order (sixth wicket onwards) that batted for close to 60 per cent of the overs, with Chase being involved in a century stand with Holder after a half-century association with Dowrich.

The familiar middle-order woes of Windies had resurfaced at the start of the second session, with Kuldeep having bagged three of the first five wickets. While none of the partnerships for the first five wickets lasted beyond 34 runs, the first real sign of a fightback was the sixth-wicket association of Chase and Dowrich as they recorded the first instance of a Windies pair lasting beyond 100 deliveries in this series. Be it calculated assaults, strong defence or strike rotation, Chase and Dowrch had all bases covered as they denied India a wicket for more than 20 overs during their 69-run stand that lasted for 124 deliveries. Their stand was yet another instance of a rearguard action for Windies in recent times, with 34 per cent of their 50 fifty-plus stands (including the one that was to follow) since 2017 coming from wickets six to 10.


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