Shai-des of finesse in carnage reignites West Indies’ Hope
It is an unending party time for Shai Hope - said Ramiz Raja on air just after the West Indies opener sent three back-to-back sixes soaring into the night skies of Barbados. The man, who 24 hours ago probably thought his tournament was over, brought the Calypso Carnival vibes back among the West Indies faithful on his home ground.
The hosts desperately needed a reaction after a lackluster performance against England and Hope led the charge in flexing the true might of this West Indies team. It did come at a cost, with Brandon King being ruled out of the tournament with a groin injury, but the team management's faith in Hope's versatility was the real winner at the end of it all.
Shai Hope walked out to open in T20Is for the first time since February 2022 and with a first look at the team sheet, one had enough logical reasons to think, "Surely it had to be Kyle Mayers in place of Brandon King. Why Hope?"
The batter's numbers as a T20I opener weren't inspiring enough going into the game. In 15 innings, Shai Hope had scored just 237 runs at an appalling average of 15.80 and a strike rate of 126.06. The odds were stacked up against him. But the management had hope that Hope would come good, and boy, did he come good!
Shai Hope - A touch player that generates enough power
A highly respected cricket commentator and former West Indies fast bowler, Ian Bishop couldn't have described Shai Hope any better when the latter deposited a delivery from Ali Khan over the mid-wicket fence for a maximum.
"He is a touch player that generates enough power," said Bishop on air.
There was almost no shot where Hope lost his shape, proving how important a stable base is even in all the smash-bang of modern-day T20 cricket. Most of his big shots were an extension of proper elegant cricketing strokes that Hope is well-known for. The six-over long-off off USA's Harmeet Singh to bring his fifty was probably the shot of the innings.
Hope seems to have found the right balance for his T20 game and shades of that were seen in the IPL 2024 season for the Delhi Capitals. He scored 183 runs despite being in and out of the team and maintained an impressive strike rate of 150.
He hit a six off Ali Khan over the covers and former Pakistan legendary pacer Waqar Younis on air went, "This is the other side of Shai Hope I am seeing", aptly summing up the new version of the stylish batter.
Hope ensured West Indies didn't get stuck with their scoring
Just after Shai Hope hit his first six off left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige, Bishop's first reaction was that he wanted to see what the batters do between two sixes. The Men from the Caribbean are known for having an array of big hitters.
However, Afghanistan were the only opposition in the T20 World Cup so far against whom the West Indies played less than fifty dot balls (36). Be it Papua New Guinea (54), Uganda (51), New Zealand (57) or England (51), fifty-plus dot balls in an innings of 120 deliveries had become a huge headache. This changed with Hope's approach against the USA.
15 out of the 39 deliveries faced by Hope's innings were either singles or doubles and this is despite him hitting four fours and as many as eight sixes. He took a bit of time to assess the conditions but didn't get stuck once he found his groove, which is proven by just four dots in the final 22 balls of his innings.
While Johnson Charles tried to muscle the ball against the spinners by making room, Hope was comfortable in driving the ball down the ground for singles or even playing the occasional inside-out shot for two runs and keeping the scoreboard ticking. It also helped Nicholas Pooran in the end to express himself after having a scratchy outing against England.
West Indies identified the areas to address after the loss against England and added the extra bowler in left-arm pacer Obed McCoy. They had been banking on their power hitters, thereby choosing just one between Roston Chase and Shai Hope for the role of a batter who could arrest a potential collapse.
However, as soon as there was an injury, the hosts got in Hope and backed him over the big-hitting prowess of Kyle Mayers. Now they have a batter at the top who can play the big shots and rotate the strike comfortably, and then have a player of a similar mold in Chase in the middle order. Roston Chase's importance with the ball couldn't be underlined further after his figures of 3/19 earned him the Player of the Match award.
West Indies head coach Daren Sammy had addressed the media after the loss to England and was asked whether the hosts had reinforcements on their bench to turn it around. Hope's demolition job of the USA has reinforced Sammy's belief of having 15 match-winners.
Captain Rovman Powell and coach Daren Sammy both used the words, "Our destiny is in our own hands" after the loss to England and Shai Hope's masterclass has allowed the hosts to be in a position where they could call the shots. A win against South Africa would see the West Indies through to the semifinals, two steps closer to a T20 World Cup treble.