Today we played the cricket we’ve always wanted to play: Shai Hope

On June 21 (Friday) in Barbados, West Indies recorded a much-needed dominant win over co-hosts United States to put themselves right in the mix for a semi-final spot. 

Two points were the need of the hour for the Windies heading into Friday’s clash, but, following a hurtful defeat to England in their first Super 8s match, Rovman Powell’s side ended up registering a statement win, chasing 129 with 55 balls to spare to put USA to the sword and effectively end their 2024 T20WC campaign.

In the aftermath of the game, a delighted Shai Hope said that, on the night, the Windies played the cricket they’ve always wanted to play.

“I would say very clinical, especially coming off the loss that we had a couple days ago,” Hope said, speaking about the game.

“It's great to see the guys understood the assignment today and we played the cricket that we wanted to play. It's important for us to continue in this vein because we see what's at stake now. But yeah, very happy with the bounce back that we did today and there's a lot more cricket to play and we're looking forward to it.”

The dominant nature of the win ended up taking Windies’ net run rate well above South Africa’s. It means that they will book a semi-final spot with a win over the Proteas in Antigua on June 23 (Sunday). 

But Hope clarified that his side did not walk out to bat with NRR in mind. He said that the team’s primary focus was just getting the ‘W’ next to their name.

“Not entirely, the main aim today coming out in the meetings as well was just to get the W ensure we play our cricket,” Hope said.

“We didn't want to get too far ahead of ourselves because sometimes that can play on the negative side. So yes, we understood the importance of getting the game finished quickly, but we didn't want to get too far ahead of ourselves.

“We just played the powerplay - the aim was to play the powerplay as normal as we could, put away the bad balls, put the guys on the pressure, started over stuff like that. 

“And then we assessed after the powerplay and then decided that we wanted to finish by a certain stage. So that's what came out of the plans and the meetings.”

At a personal level, the USA encounter was a huge success for Hope. Returning to the side in place of the injured Brandon King, the right-hander hammered 82* off just 39 balls to drive his side home. 

“Yeah, it's a great feeling,” the 30-year-old said of his knock.

“Again, whatever the team requires, that's me. Unfortunately, King had to leave us. Hopefully, he recovers quickly. But yeah, I had to go at the top this time around and the aim was just to get off to a good start. 

“You see the importance of finishing the game early as well. So yeah, I had a good time in the middle, good surface and I enjoyed batting tonight.”

Hope is usually considered an anchor, but the clash tonight saw him unfurl his explosive side. The right-hander, whose T20 batting has gone up a notch in the last 18 months, said that adaptability trumps everything else, which is why he does not want a label next to his name.

“To be honest, it's just a situation, man. It's whatever requires it,” he said, when asked about the tempo of his batting.

“There's some games where the conditions may be challenging and you have to fight. You can't just go out there and try to smash everybody off a six or four. Someone has to stick in and play along.

“Just playing the situation that's one thing that I pride myself on as a batsman, as a cricketer. And yeah, we just did the job today.”

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