West Indies set India a challenging target of 312 in the second ODI at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad last Sunday, with Shai Hope scoring 115 off 135 balls to become the 10th player to score a century in the 100th ODI.
Former Indian batsman Akash Chopra had mentioned in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Shai’s century proved all the criticism leveled at him wrong.
“Shai Hope – he became the 10th player to score a century in his 100th ODI. The start was decent, Shai Hope did play a little slow and there was some criticism that he was playing for himself.”
He showed poor performance in the last few matches and scored 52 runs in the last six ODI innings. However, Chopra added that he showed a good comeback after that poor run.
“He was in very bad form coming into this series, runs were not coming from his bat. But eventually class will come through, if the player is good, he will score runs day-after if not today or tomorrow. He scored a century and showed that the guy has the might, his numbers against India are very good in any case.”
This was his 13th century in the ODI format along with 20 fifties. So far he has scored 4193 ODI runs at an excellent average of 49.91. Against current opponents India, he has scored 855 runs in 22 matches with three centuries and four fifties at an average of 47.50. He said about India:
Also speaking further, he shared his views on leader Nicholas Pooran,
“Brandon King was made to fall on his knees by Yuzi Chahal for a duck. Nicholas Pooran – he was brilliant, took the team to a huge total. In fact, he was covering up for Shai Hope till the time he was batting.”
The hosts have scored more than 300 runs in both ODIs against India, chasing in the first and setting a target in the second. He credited Kyle Meyers for getting off to a good start.
“Kyle Mayers started very well actually. Deepak Hooda bowled a good ball to get a regulation caught-and-bowled. Axar Patel also picked up a wicket, he dismissed Shamarh Brooks, it was a good ball and it was good captaincy from Shikhar there, stood himself at slip and took a good catch.”