West Indies skipper Shai Hope wants to contribute to his team’s success in all possible ways to turn things around for West Indies Cricket. Shai Hope, who made his captaincy debut for the Men in Maroon in the 1st ODI against South Africa scored his 14th ODI century which helped them claim a 48-run win over South Africa.
All the West Indian batters showed intent to score which helped them post a big total. Speaking on his Captaincy and his goals, Shai Hope wants to try and win more games for West Indies and wants to turn a few things in their favour of them.
“It’s something we speak about in the meetings. We are just trying to win more cricket games. We didn’t have a successful 2022 and we are trying everything to turn it around,” he added.
Nicolas Pooran was removed from captaincy after West Indies failed to qualify for the group 12 stage in the 2022 World Cup and West Indies team has opted for split captaincy as Shai Hope in ODI’s and Rovman Powell in T20’s. Shai Hope further continued that he supports his players both on and off the field and added more of embracing the responsibility to do well.
“I am going to take it on full speed. It’s about giving my all to the team, I am getting support from all ends. I have got support from guys off the field and on the field. I’ve got to keep embracing the responsibility and when the time comes to shine, I’ll do so,” he added.
After 106 ODI matches, Shai Hope averages 50.40 with the bat and has 14 centuries, West Indies captain’s sublime innings from Shai Hope took West Indies to 335-8 from their 50 overs. West Indies registered their highest total vs SA in ODI on the 1st ODI.
West Indies would have to earn their spot at the ODI World Cup in India later this year via the global qualifier in Zimbabwe in June-July and a win against South Africa would have boosted theirs under the new leadership of Shai Hope.
Temba Bavuma Deserved To Win The Game – Shai Hope
Shai Hope also praised Temba Bavuma for a fantastic knock under pressure and credited him for controlling the South African innings and added that he deserved a win for such an inning, but it is unfortunate as they can be only one winner. Temba Bavuma played an extraordinary inning of 144 runs but found no support for the end to chase down the mammoth total of 336 runs.
“An innings like that deserves to be a victorious innings but it just so happened that we came out on top at the end. I must give him credit for the way he controlled the innings. He played the situation well and he really deserved to win the game but there can only be one winner,” Shai Hope said.
West Indies will look to win the final ODI match against South Africa to win the series and West Indies will play three t20 games which will be played on March 25 and March 26 in Centurion and March 28 in Johannesburg.