West Indies captain Shai Hope led his team from the front and scored a stunning century to propel his team to a memorable victory over England in the first ODI in Dominica. The hosts registered a four-wicket win to take the lead in the three-match series.
Opting to bat first after winning the toss, England were bowled out for 325 runs on the last ball of their innings. Most of their top-order batsmen got starts but failed to capitalize on them. Openers Phil Salt and Will Jacks scored 45 and 26 runs respectively, while Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett scored 48 and 20 runs respectively.
Harry Brook was the top scorer for his team, scoring 71 off 72 balls with the help of 7 fours and a couple of sixes. Towards the end, Sam Curran (38) and Brydon Carse (31*) also made crucial cameos to help their team get a total of over 300. For the home team, Romario Shepherd, Gudakesh Motie and Oshane Thomas picked up 2 wickets each.
Shai Hope gives credit to MS Dhoni:
West Indies’ chances of winning the game looked all but over after they were reduced to 213 for 5 in the 38th over. With over 100 runs remaining in less than 13 overs, the West Indies were completely on the back foot. However, Shai Hope and Shepherd revived their team’s hopes by sharing a quickfire partnership of 89 runs for the sixth wicket.
Shepherd was dismissed for 49 off 28 balls, while Shai Hope stayed on till the end and scored an unbeaten 109 to help West Indies record their highest successful chase against England. In the 49th over, the right-handed batsman hit Sam Curran for three sixes to end the game in style.
After the match, the West Indies captain surprised everyone by talking about MS Dhoni, widely considered to be one of the greatest finishers in the history of the game. He revealed that he had a conversation with the former Indian captain and claimed that he helped him finish the match for his team.
“He [the century] I was in a winning cause and that’s all I play for. Happy to have won. I had a conversation with MS Dhoni some time ago and he told me that you always get a lot more time at the crease than you think and that stuck with me,” said Shai Hope.
“Pastor was amazing. We achieved the victory, we started the series well and the objective is to repeat it in the next game. He played very well in his first games, we have to try to start a little better in the next game. We also had some missed catches, if you want to be the best team in the world, you also have to start playing like the best team in the world. It’s good to see the openers taking responsibility, they are both great players. It is about seeing how we can continue repeating these performances,” he added.