Hope, Carty anchor Windies to series-levelling win

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 on Saturday in Barbados.

Hope struck just two fours and two sixes in the top score of 63 not out from 80 balls, to earn the Player-of-the-Match award. Carty supported with 48 from 65 balls to help the Caribbean side successfully chase 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. 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.

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 three and a half 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.”

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 as the West Indies bowled out India for 181 in 40.5 overs.