The euphoria of an IPL triumph achieved exactly a week to the day, on a heady Chennai night, may have suddenly felt foggy as Andre Russell walked into bat with West Indies needing 40 off 24. Papua New Guinea had pushed the hosts into a corner and were daring to dream of an upset on a tricky Providence surface. Even someone of Russell’s vintage was unlikely to have it easy to be able to strike from get go.
Until then, PNG had refused to be intimidated by the plethora of ball-strikers, each capable of hitting bigger than the other. They may have even had West Indies possibly question their own choices at a point, like the decision to sacrifice power-hitting depth for all-round squad balance as they fielded Roston Chase and Rutherford over Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer.
The match, although not sold to capacity, still had a considerable number of home fans clenching their fists as Russell took strike against John Kariko, who had bowled his three overs until then with immaculate control and guile. Phil Simmons, West Indies’ former T20 World Cup winning coach now with PNG as consultant, was furiously chewing gum. There was tension.
What chance did a 20-year-old rookie who’d played all his career up until then against the likes of Philippines, Vanuatu, Malaysia and Nepal have against The Dre Russ? Maybe not even an inkling, but Kariko was showing no nerves. He kept landing them on a length. Some straightened, others just went through with the arm. Five balls into his penultimate over, he’d conceded just three runs and West Indies now needed 37 off 19.
Just as you wondered if Russell was going the MS Dhoni way of taking it till the end, he got a gift. For the first time in his spell, Kariko erred by bowling a half-tracker. Russell needed no second invitation as he rocked back and muscled the pull to clear deep midwicket. Nervous smiles gave way to an energetic pump of the fists in the West Indies dug out.
That release shot had opened the floodgates. At the other end, Chase had killed them softly it with some of the most aesthetically pleasing strokes, not one of them played in anger or in desperation. By the time the 18th over finished, Chase had all but sealed the match by hitting Assad Vala, the PNG captain, for two fours and a six to bring the equation down to a comfortable 13 off 12. West Indies needed only six more balls to get there.
Roston Chase scored 42 off 27 balls, West Indies vs Papua New Guinea, 2024 T20 World Cup, Providence, Guyana, June 2, 2024
Chase may have ended the game in a blaze, but hardly got out of second gear until push came to shove. This wasn’t because he wasn’t capable of hitting the big shots, but it was the need of the hour. Nicholas Pooran fell trying to hit out as did Brandon King. Rutherford struggled for fluency too. All along, Chase milked the runs, batting with a sense of calm that suggested he’d sussed out conditions superbly.
“I had to take it home for the team, and I did it,” Chase said after being named Player of the Match for his unbeaten 27-ball 42. “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.”
A part of Chase’s batting blueprint may have been formed when he was out bowling. Chase bowled his four overs for 26, during which he used the crease nicely to vary his lines and hit lengths to extract bounce from his tall frame. On two-paced surfaces, this mantra, married to a wicket-to-wicket line, has the potential to be a superb cocktail. While there were no inherent rewards for these efforts in the form of wickets, Chase kept PNG in check for most parts. It was only a late flourish from Kiplin Doriga that helped them finish on 136.
“That was very good,” Rovman Powell, the West Indies captain said of Chase’s spell. “Started from a bowling effort, I think he bowled pretty well. And coming at the end, when we were under pressure coming there with composure, and to come out with a winning innings was great for us.”
Andre Russell hits down the ground, West Indies vs Papua New Guinea, 2024 T20 World Cup, Providence, Guyana, June 2, 2024
Andre Russell got away a vital boundary as the asking rate was climbing•Associated Press
Chase’s performances will also be that much more gratifying for himself and West Indies because for a long time he’s battled the perception of being a long-format player. But in 2020, when he was signed as a replacement player by St Lucia Kings in the CPL, something changed. In the following season, he was named MVP and made it to the T20 World Cup squad in 2021 in UAE.
Even as most of his team-mates were over at the IPL, Chase went on a West Indies A tour to Nepal, where they played on spin-friendly surfaces in the middle of a heatwave. He topped those performances with two reassuring performances at home against South Africa prior to the T20 World Cup.
“I’m full of confidence, even before this knock,” Chase said. “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’ve been putting in a lot of work back home, obviously in the camp before the South Africa series. For me, it’s just to go there express myself when I get the chance and put everything that I put into practice into the game and entertain.
“A lot of hard work, sweat, tears [has gone into it], just putting in the hard work. And obviously, believing. I think that’s the main reason. I mean, you can do all the hard work and have everyone rooting for you, but if you don’t have that self-belief, you’re not going to achieve. So, I just think that it’s for me to back any hard work that I did and also believing in my ability that when I get out there that I was showing my [skill].” (espncricinfo).
