Amir Jangoo is on cloud nine, and he has every reason to be. The West Indies batsman, playing in his only second Test, scored a massive 233 at No.4 and helped the hosts take a huge first-inning lead of 318 runs against Sri Lanka at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium in Antigua on day three.
Jangoo and Roston Chase (194) added a record 401 runs for the sixth wicket and made the visiting bowlers toil all day.
“It was an amazing day, still words can’t describe how I feel right now. But having said that, we have a Test match to win and I’m glad I could have contributed to putting the guys in a really good position along with the captain,” Jangoo said later.
Jangoo shared his approach to batting in red-ball cricket: start well. “I think I have a formula in batting, especially in red-ball cricket, where I know that once I get to 20 runs, that means I bat close to 40 to 50 balls. Our batting coach, Floyd Reifer, mentioned it to me as well, how starts are so important. So I think I went around with that formula, and it worked,” Jangoo said.
28-year-old Jangoo was also happy that his captain was at last able to move on from a bad string of runs. Since taking over the Test captaincy last year, it was his first big innings – his first fifty in fact.
“We have a pretty close relationship on and off the field as well. We all know that he wasn’t having the best time of the bat, but we all know the quality player that he is, and it’s amazing to see that he could have come to the fore in this match,” he said.
Chase all praise!
Jangoo wasn’t the first choice for this game. An injury to Shai Hope on the eve of the match proved to be a happy chance for him, and boy, was Hope missed even for a moment when the left-hander was batting! Chase highlighted that.
“For a guy to be thinking that he’s not going to play and then get that last-minute call, to be so focused and so switched on and so hungry to perform like that, I think he’s a Herculean effort,” the Windies skipper told the host broadcaster.