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'Quite embarrassing': Chase owns up after record low; admits Windies did not learn from past mistakes
Written by Sherdon Cowan. Posted in ICC Test Championship. | 15 July 2025 | 351 Views
Tags: Roston Chase, West Indies V Australia

Though West Indies captain Roston Chase tried to remain stoic in the face of adversity, he could not mask his disappointment after his team was bowled out for a humiliating 27 in the final innings of the historic day/night Test at Sabina Park—their lowest total in Test history and the lowest by any team in the 21st century.

With the three-match series already lost and Australia in an unassailable 2-0 lead, the regional side had hoped to finish with pride and collect World Test Championship points. Instead, they suffered another dramatic fourth-innings collapse that turned a competitive Test match into a one-sided rout and left Chase reflecting on a string of familiar batting failings.

"It's disappointing. Obviously we've been putting ourselves in positions to win games, and then we just lie down and not put up a fight in the last batting innings. And it's quite heartbreaking because I think we did it in all three Tests, and we're not really learning from our mistakes. So that's something we have to really look at," Chase told reporters.

The painful post-mortem followed what many have called a record-setting embarrassment under the Sabina Park lights. Chasing 203 for victory, West Indies crumbled to 27 all out in less than 17 overs, as Mitchell Starc, in his 100th Test, ripped through the order for career-best figures of 6-9.

“Yeah, obviously being bowled out for less than 30 is quite embarrassing. Something that you don't want as a team. But it's beyond us now. We have to just try to improve from here,” Chase admitted.

Though questions have swirled around the technical ability and mental fortitude of the West Indies batting unit, especially in pressure situations, the captain pointed out that neither team really adjusted to the movement of the pink ball.

"Yeah, I thought we started well, and we never really caught up with them after a while. So they were just too good for us. We know it (pink ball Test) is quite a lot more difficult in terms of the ball moving, and then especially when the lights come on, it's even more difficult, and both sides struggled to score runs," Chase noted.

Despite the historic setting—the first day-night Test ever held in Jamaica and only the second in the Caribbean—the contest again highlighted the vast gulf between the two teams. However, Chase emphasized the value of testing themselves against the best.

"Australia seems to set quite the benchmark for Test cricket. Once you can play against them and compete or even beat them, you know you're on the way to becoming a good Test team. I thought we were neck and neck until the last session in each game," he said.

The reality was that West Indies were in each match until they weren't, as they were undone by soft dismissals, poor shot selection, and an inability to absorb pressure. Even with the final target of 203 being one of the more modest in the series, Chase acknowledged the chase fell apart before it could even begin.

"We thought 203 was quite gettable, but being 12 for 7 or something like that... it’s very difficult to recover from there," he declared.

Now, with his first full series as captain complete, Chase, who had not played a Test in over two years prior, acknowledged the challenge of leading under fire but said he was not surprised by the demands.

"Test cricket is very, very hard. It's nothing that I didn’t expect. I expected it to be tough, especially against the number one team in the world. But all Test cricket is tough, and we’re always up for the challenge," Chase shared.

Finally, with 120 wickets falling in less than 10 days of cricket across three Tests, the balance between bat and ball has come under scrutiny. But Chase diplomatically avoided blaming the pitches, though he noted their difficulty.

"I think the pitches were very tough. I don't want to say they were too in favour of the bowlers, but they were very tough because, as you can see, this is probably the first series I've ever played in which no batsman got 100 for each side. So that just goes to show how dominant the bowlers were," he ended. 

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