India vs Windies, 2nd ODI - Who Said What

Shai Hope almost snatched a victory for his team in a thrilling second ODI between India and Windies in Vizag. Shimron Hetmyer just blazed his way to 94. Virat Kohli batted out of his skins during his 157-run knock and the Indian bowlers came back superbly at the death to eke out a sensational tie and keep their lead of 1-0 intact in the five-match series. The game had it all and the full-house was treated with a humdinger as no team deserved to lose the game.

After opting to bat first, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were sent back early only for Ambati Rayudu and Virat Kohli to rebuild it later. They added 139 runs together in less than 24 overs. The former though couldn’t stretch his knock beyond 73 runs even as MS Dhoni could only add 20 runs to the total before being undone by a beautiful slower delivery from the debutant Obed McCoy.

Kohli, until then, had got into his zone and was shattering records as well. Without making any fuss, he reached his 37th ODI ton after completing 10,000 runs in the format with his 81st run in the game. However, he unfurled some amazing shots in the death overs to propel India to 321/6 after 50 overs and remained unbeaten on 157.

Hetmyer-Hope show

If India had Virat Kohli to leave the crowd in his awe, Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope stunned them with a sensational partnership. At 78/3, no one gave them a chance to get even close in the chase. But the former backed up his century in the first match with a 64-ball 94 to make his team believe that they can gun down the total. Hope, meanwhile, was going about his business calmly.

Hetmyer’s wicket gave India a sniff and the wickets fell at regular intervals from then. With 63 runs needed in the last 10 overs, the visitors were the favourites. However, there were more twists to the game. The spinners and the rejuvenated seamers suddenly improved their lengths and bowled to a perfect plan.

Eventually, it came down to 23 runs from last three overs. Yuzvendra Chahal and Mohammed Shami conceded just 9 runs in the next two overs to give India an advantage. However, Shai Hope didn’t lose heart and slammed a boundary off Umesh Yadav when Windies needed 5 off the final ball. Yadav just gave him a little more width after bowling a superb over until then. In the end, no team literally deserved to lose.

Man of the Match and India captain, Virat Kohli said:

It was a great game of cricket, great to be part of it. Full house and credit to the West Indies team as well, they showed great heart. Specially in the second innings, when they got stuck in despite being three down. Beautiful partnership between both those guys but the way two teams played it was a fair result.

Personally, I’m pretty proud of my innings and my milestone. It’s something we decided pre-game, it was hot and humid.

In big tournaments, we might be batting first and we have to embrace every challenge that comes our way. The pitch was drastically different, we put up a challenge in front of us today and luckily we got the draw, we will take it happily.

When the run rate fell under 6, I thought they had good chance, and the game nicely drifted in the last 7 overs and one boundary off Umesh off the shoe and that boundary from Rayudu just a few inches, I’m sure everyone enjoyed and the Windies deserved a draw at least and I think we deserved a draw too.

Rayudu is someone we are looking at as a permanent number four. He is in good momentum and good form and Shai has got great talent. Hetmyer as well. They took on us and didn’t give us any chance whatsoever.

Windies captain, Jason Holder said:

Really good game of cricket played by both teams. Congrats to Virat, played a brilliant knock and on getting to the 10000 milestone.

Shai Hope is a young talent and he played a magnificent knock. Unfortunately we didn’t get over the line, but still a lot of positives from this game. Also Shimron Hetmyer showed his consistency again and I felt it was a really good effort by the bowlers.

My run-out and obviously Hetty was upset that he got out in a crucial stage when we had a very good chance. I said it at the start that we want one of our top four to stay there till the end, and it was very good to see Shai bat till the end.

Unfortunately we didn’t win the game, but like I said before there are a lot of positives. I thought it was around par (first innings total), and it’s very good to see that we had that in two consistent games in a row.

Proud of the way the guys played and there are a couple of areas that we could improve. Sloppy fielding is something that we need to really improve on.

Obviously we could have picked a few more wickets in the middle overs. He (Obed McCoy) is one of those guys who has a lot of variations. Bowls those cutters and slower balls. Quite effective at that stage of the game and I like the way he handled himself in his maiden game. It’s really good to see him come in and perform that way.