Hyderabad : West Indies defeated India by 24 runs in 4th T20I at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on back of heroics of Shai Hope and Keemo Paul to level the series 2-2.
West Indies openers Jewel Andrew (21) and captain Shai Hope (102*) started off well with 52 runs stand. Shimron Hetmyer (33) then joined Hope for another quickfire 58 runs partnership. Rovman Powell (24) also played a good cameo. It was all about sheer power hiting from West Indies with captain Hope holding from other end.
When West Indies were 156-3 (12.5), Sherfane Rutherford (49*) joined Hope for a 91* runs partnership where Rutherford smashed bowlers out of the park.
But the knock that brought headlines was West Indies captain Shai Hope who’s in red hot form. He plundered 102* (50) with 9 sixes, 4 boundaries and a massive 204 strike rate. He completed his ton in last 2 Ball of the innings, smashing 2 consecutive sixes. The ton was Hope’s 3rd in T20I history, surpassing Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis to record most centuries by West Indies Batter in T20I history, and 4th in this tour. Interestingly, all of Hope’s T20I tons have identical score – 102. With this, he also surpassed 2000 T20I runs, becoming only the 4th West Indies Batter to do so after Rovman Powell and Nicholas Pooran and Brandon King.
This knock brought West Indies score to 247-3 (20).
Chasing 248, Sanju Samson (56) started off on fine not and notched 60 runs opening stand with Abhishek Sharma (29) in just 4 overs. But after Samson’s dismissal, things began to change.
India lost wickets at regular intervals after Samson went to dugout. Tilak Varma (43) and Nitish Reddy (41) tried desperately to bring India close but Keemo Paul stepped into the way and picked up 5 wickets – his 2nd in T20I history. Gudakesh Motie grabbed 2 wickets to bowl an economical spell as India were restricted to 223-9 , after Arshdeep Singh retired hurt in last over after taking a blow off a bouncer in Shamar Joseph’s over which was penultimate in the game.
India lost the game by 24 runs and both the sides will face each other for final T20I on Saturday at Bengaluru, which will also be the decider.
Brief Scorecard :
WI : 247-3 (20)
IND : 223 (19.3)
Result : WI won by 24 runs.
