West Indies skipper Shai Hope was delighted after they stunned India by six wickets at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados on Saturday to level the three-match series 1-1. After winning the toss, the Windies skittled out India for a meager score of 181 runs as the bowlers were right on the money.
The pitch was once again challenging and the home team made the most of their own conditions. After Shubman Gill was dismissed, adding a good alliance of 90 runs with Ishan Kishan, India’s innings went downhill from there as they were bundled out after doubling their score.
Kishan scored his second consecutive fifty of the series but none of the other batters could show any resistance. On the other hand, Romario Shepherd and Gudakesh Motie bowled superbly to return with three wickets each for the home team. Furthermore, Alzarri Joseph picked up two wickets for the Windies while Yannic Cariah and Jayden Seales bagged one scalp apiece.
Meanwhile, Shai Hope played a match-winning knock of 63 runs for his team as he led from the front. Hope also got support from Keacy Carty, who scored an unbeaten knock of 48 runs. Moreover, Kyle Mayers scored a quickfire 36 from 28 balls to give a good start to the hosts.
West Indies were able to tick the right boxes with both bat and ball and this performance must have added a shot in their arm.
Hope said in the post-match presentation, “I am happy, when I get a fifty, when I get a hundred, and when the team wins. You got to find ways to score quickly on that wicket, especially against a quality bowling attack like India. Very satisfied. We got one win, got to win the next game to take the series. The guys are going to come hard again.”
Hope added they need to continue the good show and they will try to be consistent, “We keep speaking about the attitude, and today we displayed that. We need to replicate that and need to be more consistent with the bat and ball. Complete performance I must say, the surface was challenging, the bowlers and batters did well. We want to be on the winning side and if we tick all the boxes, I am pretty sure we can achieve that.”
Meanwhile, India was without the experience of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and the same was reflected in their batting order. But it was a poor batting performance from the visitors as they could only manage 181 runs on the board.
The third ODI of the series will be played at Trinidad on Tuesday.
