West Indies captain Shai Hope said building partnerships and Sherfane Rutherford’s explosive batting were key to his team’s six-wicket victory over India in the second T20I, as the visitors chased down a daunting target of 250 at the JSCA International Stadium Complex here on Friday.
But five for two was always going to be challenging,” Hope said after being named Player of the Match. Hope said the partnership with Rovman Powell helped the West Indies regain momentum before Rutherford’s counter-attacking knock provided the decisive impetus to the chase. I know it was very difficult conditions to bowl on, so the way how he bowled and kept us in the game made it a lot easier for us to do that throughout the chase, that score,” Hope said. The West Indies captain said his recent run of form was a result of preparation and maintaining mental freshness rather than any special comfort playing in India.
“That it’s going to be a tough chase. But when you chase here in India, you always give yourself a chance. You always think you’re in the game, regardless of what score is on the board. “Amazing. On a surface and a field like this, to go at six runs an over is unbelievable. So he really kept us in the game. “I just must say, all those SS bats that I have are pretty good. But yeah, the ball seemed to be travelling quite a bit here. Yes, the boundaries were a little bit bigger on the bigger side, but you just got to back myself.
Just once the ball’s in my zone, look at the best option to get the boundary, and it just came off well today. As I said before, I got to get some luck going my way, and today was one of those days for me,” he said.
“When we got that partnership there, myself and Rovman, we just got some more impetus in the innings, and then obviously Sherfane came and did what he did, played really well with the bat, and just gave us that spark that we needed to get over the line today,” he said.
Reflecting on the early setbacks that saw the visitors reduced to 5/2, Hope admitted the chase had become challenging but said playing in India always gave a team belief that a target could be achieved.
