On a day where it seemed the West Indies were again going to hand away an easy win, one man came in between Bangladesh’s likely success and West Indies’ eventual victory.
At times, his batting compels one to ask whether the West Indies are ‘Shai’ to Hope anymore?
If you were a witness to the outcome of the second ODI then you felt finally at ease, particularly if you were an exhausted West Indies fan who’d been made to witness a complete capitulation in the Test series.
Thankfully and once again for the West Indies fans, in particular, there won’t be a whitewash for the tourists.
Having lost the opening game of the ODI series, it was but important for Rovman Powell’s unit to win. Even if that meant the captain contributing a solitary run, none of that matters for Shai Hope was there till the end.
And in the end, even as West Indies registered their first win in the Bangladeshi part of the sub-continent, the chief architect of a rewarding win should be the one who the team must bow down to.
A classy knock!
For had it not been for Shai Hope’s timely and belligerent 146, a knock that saw the Barbadian remain unbeaten the West Indies have finally drawn level with hosts, Bangladesh.
Having said that, a big and now, much-awaited final, set to take place on 14 December 2018 is all to play for.
But none of that would’ve even mattered and the final may just have been another dead rubber had the cautious and technically virtuous right-hander not produced 146 precious runs, coming into bat from number 3.
There’s always a pleasure in striking a hundred. The pleasure only doubles when you remain unbeaten in the end. And then, when your hundred takes the team on the course to a fine win, the feeling is beautiful.
Now that told, the West Indian team might want to balance the euphoria surrounding their thrilling toppling of Bangladesh in the series equalling Second ODI by taking some time out to assess the performance of the remainder of its batsmen.
So far, only Shai Hope- 189 runs under his belt from 2 games- has seemed the only man confident of converting a start into something meaningful. He opened his account at the Sher-E-Bangla with a vital 43. He came in this game and went around 103 runs better to score what became his 3rd ODI century.
At 25, Shai Hope’s craft is expanding that of the West Indies
Calm and collected, he essayed an element of coolness that defined his game. He picked gaps where it seemed, others would fail. He lifted the ball, flicked it, swept it and managed to tame the fine-leg boundary on one occasion too many.
But at present, so utterly reliant does the team seem on this gritty batsman that if accidentally, he was to sit out of a game or two, one doesn’t quite know what would become of the batting unit.
This, in no way, means to disrespect other talented cricketers who’ve just been sitting like a lame duck, waiting to offer their precious wickets to Bangladeshi bowlers while Shai Hope’s been fighting what can be clearly seen as a lone battle.
Darren Bravo got a start in the first game but failed to capitalize. To top it up, he couldn’t score briskly. A 19 off 50 balls wasn’t the kind of knock you expected from someone making a much-followed comeback, typically when he reminds one of Lara. Samuels threw it away when burdened by his own failure to convert 1s into 2s and rotate the strike, he offered what can only be called catching practice to long-on in the series opener.
That he couldn’t go beyond the twenties again in the second game illustrates his failure to put that experience into play. What would’ve happened had he just hung around a bit more with Shai Hope. To come to other players, Shimron Hetmyer- a possible candidate to receive some advice from a mental coach about calming down in the middle- was again disappointing. Should he continue to self-obliterate on the path of his viciousness to throw away his wicket, one doesn’t quite know how would the West Indies make use of all that talent.
Is flamboyance the only gift from Hetmyer; can he control his temperament and elongate his stay in the middle? Sadly, he alone knows the answer. The West Indians haven’t really mastered the skill of harnessing bright talent into making it something reliable.
We’ve seen how Sarwan was allowed to fade away. No one knows where on earth is Kirk Edwards and there’s hardly any revolt in the press or among fans that Evin Lewis recently turned down a central contract for the next year. Should Hetmyer not be tutored, what’s going to become of his ballsy talent, something that’s already endeared him to the attention of so many fans.
World cricket needs a strong West Indies team
But having said that, it needs a team that doesn’t have to rely on the false or half-hearted hopes as extended by Andre Russell, for instance. Who’s really benefitting with Russell’s much-talked-about international return?
Surely this team isn’t.
And on top of that, if Shai Hope is constantly burdened to do the bulk of the team’s scoring, what’s going to become of a side that’s already lagging in experience if not mercurial talent?
Where are the answers to strange selection strategies? Is Roston Chase- a world-class Test talent- really an ODI pick? What’s the alternative to, let’s say, Chase also failing in 50-over cricket? Will Kraigg Brathwaite be asked to open or come at number six?
For a while, in the Second ODI, all of these existential crisis’ seemed minutely important only because Shai Hope’s regal form made them hide under the carpet.
It’s also interesting that while on the one hand, there seems to be a fighter in Hope who’s daring, perhaps against overwhelming odds to carry the mantle of his side on his inexperienced shoulders and also succeeding in a few occasions, it’s absurd, on the other hand to note how little do the current batsmen seem to be doing something about contributing to Windies.
Perhaps, for now, the team should rally around the heroic son of the West Indies and exchange notes on how they can come back together and maybe spark a bit of a renaissance at Bangladesh. Winning the final isn’t that hard to be honest.
But it shouldn’t be Shai Hope alone again, isn’t it, regardless of the fluidity and character he brings to the crease when each time he chooses to apply himself.