BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – An unbeaten half-century from their captain Shai Hope and his unbroken fifth-wicket stand with Keacy Carty carried West Indies to a redeeming, series-levelling six-wicket win against India in the second One-day International today in Barbados.
Hope gathered only two fours and two sixes in the top score of 63 not out from 80 balls to earn the Player-of-the-Match award, and Carty supported with 48 from 65 balls, and the Caribbean side successfully chased 182 under heavy skies at Kensington Oval.
Hope and Carty defied the gloom of the weather and the sins of the past few months that included failure to qualify for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India to put on 91 unbroken and take West Indies to a morale-boosting win.
They came together with the hosts 91 for four in the 17th over, and plenty of time and opportunity for them to script a memorable end to the contest, and they did not lose sight of the task, curbing their natural instincts and choosing hard running between the wickets to get them over the finish line.
Carty, 26, the West Indies Under-19 World Cup winner, had the privilege of formalising the result with 80 balls remaining, ending the match with back-to-back boundaries – guided to third-man and slapped over mid-off – off stand-in India captain Hardik Pandya.
The result kept the three-match series alive after India won the first ODI by five wickets two days prior at the same venue, and sets up a mouth-watering finale in the historic third ODI on Tuesday, the first ODI to be staged at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in the southern community of Tarouba in the neighbouring island of Trinidad.
The win was also the first for West Indies over India in 10 matches spread over a period of 3-1/2 years, and ended an unbeaten run of nine ODIs for the visitors, whose line-up did not include regular captain Rohit Sharma and master batsman Virat Kohli.
“I’m happy as long as my contributions lead to wins,” Hope said in the post-play TV interview. “When things are difficult, you’ve gotta find ways to score quickly, so you gotta run hard, we got twos which helped.
“I am very satisfied because the aim was to get back in the series. We gotta win one more and need to come back strongly. We gotta put in the effort and we displayed the right attitude in this match, and we need to replicate that in all disciplines.
“It was a complete performance. We want to tick all the boxes and get the right result in the final game.”
Openers Kyle Mayers and Brandon King gave West Indies a solid start, sharing 53 for the first wicket, and put the Indians on the back-foot early in the chase.
Mayers faced 28 balls and struck four fours and two sixes, mostly one-legged whips through the leg-side, before he tried one too many and was caught at fine leg off Shardul Thakur for 36 in the ninth over.
Two balls later, King was lbw to the same bowler for 15, playing across a full-length delivery, and unsuccessfully reviewed the verdict of umpire Gregory Brathwaite; TV replays showing the ball struck the pad first and not the bat.
Left-hander Alick Athanaze was still trying to find his feet when he top-edged a hook at a short, rising ball from Thakur and was caught behind for six, and fellow left-hander Shimron Hetmyer was bowled by unorthodox left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav for nine on the stroke of the drinks break.
This gave Hope the primary opportunity to reset his mind and he found Carty to be a willing partner, and they complemented in other throughout their partnership to carry West Indies the rest of the way before a crowd that included Sir Garfield Sobers.
Thakur was India’s most effective bowler on a pitch that offered generous assistance to both the pace and spin bowlers, taking three for 42 from eight overs, but no other could match his consistency of effort.
Earlier, left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie bagged three for 36 from 9.5 overs, and fellow Guyanese, pacer Romario Shepherd ended with a career-best three for 37 from eight overs, and West Indies bowled out India for 181 in 40.5 overs.
Wicketkeeper-opener Ishan Kishan top scored for India for the second successive match with 55, while fellow opener Shubman Gill got 34 after the home team won the toss and chose to field.
West Indies restricted India to 49 without loss at the end of the first Power Play, but Ishan and Shubman completed an opening stand of 90 before the innings went into a spiral, and India lost three wickets for seven in the span of 16 balls.
When leg-spinner Yannic Cariah got Sanju Samson caught at slip for nine and rain immediately stopped play, India were 113 for five after 24.1 overs.
On resumption after about 45 minutes, the Caribbean side continued to make regular inroads into the India batting with Motie and pacer Alzarri Joseph carving up the bottom half of the visitors’ batting.
