After having a victorious end to the first ODI, West Indies was praised for putting up a stunning game against the hosts India. Once again the victorious Men in Blue were swept off of their feet by the visitors in the limited-overs game on Sunday (15th December) at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer were the highlights of the game.
Talking about Shai Hope, Brian Lara believes that Hope is the best option for West Indies in all formats of cricket.
After the disappointing third T20I match, the Caribbean had put up a great show in Chennai. Opting to bowl first, the Windies bowlers took out the top three batsmen of India within 19 overs. The first two wickets of the host team were taken down by Sheldon Cottrell during the seventh over of the match.
However, Rishabh Pant, who scored his maiden ODI fifty, and Shreyas Iyer were able to take India past 190 runs before Kieron Pollard took away Pant’s wicket. West Indies limited India for 287 runs at the loss of eight wickets in fifty overs.
Brian Lara thinks Shai Hope is the best option for WI
Nevertheless, it was just another game of highly disappointing bowling and fielding by Virat Kohli & Co. Coming down to chase the target score of 288 runs, the Windies opener Shai Hope dug his feet in the ground and remained unbeaten throughout the game.
Although Shimron Hetmyer was the highlight of the game, Hope stuck on the crease till the very end of the game. Hetmyer illuminated Windies’ game by striking a stunning knock of 139 runs off of 106 balls that was studded with 11 fours and seven sixes. However, Hope took his time on the crease and scored an unbeaten 102 runs with seven fours and a six.
Amidst of Hetmyer’s lightening performance, the cricketing legend of West Indies, Brian Lara found Hope’s batting up to the mark. Hope performed exceptionally under the high pressure of the starting overs of the game and stayed on the crease to take his team across the winning line.
“Presently, I think Shai Hope is the best option we have in terms of a batsman who can play all formats. He is not a bad attacking player, pretty much a decent Test player. He will stand out. Nicholas Pooran, Hetmyer and even Brandon King the new find, these are guys that you can mold,” Brian Lara said.
“I think that they will mature a little bit later than others. Some guys like Sachin Tendulkar — at 16 he was already a mature cricketer — or Carl Hooper matured very early. There is nothing wrong with maturing later in life,” he further added while speaking to IANS on the sidelines of an event for Usha International.
Nevertheless, the West Indies have a squad full of talented cricketers. After winning the first match of the ODI series, the visitors will now be looking forward to not let India win the second game on 18th December. The second game will be played in Vishakhapatnam and the third ODI will be played on 22nd December at Barabati Stadium.