Unsurprised Windies in party mood while Hope smashing it
|| CF Correspondent ||
Shai Hope has been in the form of his life. He came off a two straight unbeaten centuries, including his career best, which led West Indies to their only victory before the first T20 in the tour.
On Monday at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, he made the victory number for West Indies in the tour to two. But he did it in some style.
Amid the good number of the fiery batsmen of West Indies, who is ruling domestic T20 cricket with their breathtaking stroke or power-hitting, he inscribed his name as the fastest half-centurion in T20 International from the Caribbean Island.
His maiden T20 fifty came off just 16 balls, what even Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Andre Russell or others couldn’t do. In doing so, he listed him as the third fastest batsman to T20 fifty, behind India’s Yuvraj Singh ( 12 balls) and New Zealand’s Colin Munro (14 balls).
But his power-hitting ability also sprung surprise given he has the strike rate of 71 in ODI cricket, which is not good at all in modern cricket and his Test strike rate is just 42.
Sheldon Cottrell meanwhile was not surprise by his big hitting ability and said no West Indies players were indeed.
“It wasn’t surprising at all. He has been in form for a while now, he’s currently eighth in the ODI ranking as a batsman. I mean once you are in form as a batsman you gotta cash in, and he showed a perfect example of that,” said Cottrell.
As the party mood is in Caribbean’s blood, Cottrell said they were having enormous fun in the camp while Hope was in destructive mood.
“We were having fun as West Indian boys do. Laughing, mocking each other. It was all smiles.”
