Bouncer strategy no problem for Chase

West Indies batsman Roston Chase says New Zealand’s strategy of short-pitched bowling in the recent Test series had not been a major issue for him but believes he can still improve significantly in that area of his game.

The right-hander recently returned from the tour where West Indies suffered a 2-0 clean sweep, losing the first Test by an innings and 67 runs and the second by 240 runs – both inside four days.

Left-arm pacers Neil Wagner and Trent Boult proved the undoing of the Windies, employing the short ball to good effect to rattle the visitors in both Tests.

“It [rising delivery] was a bit challenging earlier on in my career and against Pakistan, I had some issues with it. Against England, I had some issues with it but I thought in the New Zealand series, the batting coach Toby Radford and I did a lot of work on it,” Chase told Barbados Today online newspaper.

“We worked on different ways to play the delivery in order to get around it and it has helped me a lot. I feel a lot more comfortable playing it, even though I haven’t yet mastered it.”

Chase managed just one half-century on the tour, 64 in the second innings of the final Test in Hamilton with the Windies set a world-record 444 for victory.

Overall, he mustered 99 runs at an average of 24, representing the second series this year in foreign conditions where he struggled to get among the runs, following on from a dismal summer tour of England.