Twitter Reactions: Shai Hope's ton helps West Indies inflict a much-needed whitewash

It was the first-time they whitewashed an opponent in this format since 2014.

By Anuraag Peesara

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Shai Hope
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Shai Hope. (Photo Source: Twitter)

The West Indies have had their fair share of struggles in the ODI format but against a decent Afghanistan side, they came up with an authoritative performance. After winning the first two games, they came out with another strong performance which helped them complete their first whitewash in this format in ODI cricket since 2014.

Afghanistan batted first having won the toss and the men from the Caribbean struck early. Keemo Paul struck another couple of blows having taken up the new ball, which did put the batting side in trouble, but Hazratullah Zazai was batting in a world of his. He scored a quickfire half-century but was dismissed immediately after.

Asghar Afghan was the next to start his onslaught, who took the counter-attacking approach. He played some scintillating cricketing shots, ones which left even the West Indies bowlers stunned out of surprise. Yet, the other batsmen failed to keep up a good scoring rate. Just before he could get to his hundred, which he richly deserved, Alzarri Joseph picked up his wicket.

Towards the end, Mohammad Nabi chipped in with vital contribution as they ended up with 249 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Keemo Paul chipped in with a brilliant spell, who returned with figures of 3/44.

Shai Hope smashes his 6th ODI ton

While wickets kept tumbling at one end, Shai Hope kept his composure with a solid knock on a turning track and this one should help him preserve his spot for a longer time. Mujeeb picked up two early wickets in the 3rd over of the innings, dismissing Evin Lewis and Shimron Hetmyer.

First one of the three major partnerships Hope was involved in came with Brandon King. The 24-year-old was calm and composed, didn’t try anything extravagant and did exactly what was needed. King and Hope’s partnership accounted for just 64 runs, but that ensured West Indies saw through a difficult phase without inflicting much damage on themselves.

Hope completed his fifty and the batsmen coming up next were in a bit of a hurry to get to the winning mark. Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran played a couple of cameos, but Roston Chase and Hope put on the best partnership of them all. Chase’s presence of mind and Hope’s class was enough to take the West Indies home without much trouble.

The 26-year-old completed a hundred just a couple of overs before they reached the target and West Indies won the game by five wickets, also winning the series 3-0. Roston Chase was named the player of the series for his outstanding all-round contribution whilst Hope was named player of the match.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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