Roston Chase, who engineered West Indies’ demolition of England in the first test on Saturday, joined an elite list of West Indies’ bowlers with eight wickets or more.
Chase did not extract a great deal of turn from the Kensington Oval pitch in Barbados, but flighted the ball beautifully and, aided by some poor England batting, emerged with the figures of eight for 60.
“Looking at the wicket, I always thought I would come into play in the second innings,” he told reporters.
With the home team having opted for a line-up lacking a specialist spinner, captain Jason Holder had few options other than to use Chase, a batting all-rounder who entered the match with a test bowling average of more than 40.
“The quicks set it up for us in the first innings and (spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed) told me I’m going to have to bowl 25 overs in the second innings, to get my mind ready for it, so I was always prepared to do some work, to give the pacers a rest,” he said.
Only Jack Noreiga — 9-95 v India at Port of Spain in 1971 — has taken more than eight wickets in an innings for West Indies.
