Windies win, level series 1-1

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An unbeaten half-century from West Indies Captain Shai Hope and his unbroken fifth-wicket stand with Keacy Carty took the West Indies to a redeeming, series-leveling six-wicket win against India in the second One-Day International in Barbados.

Hope gathered only two fours and two sixes in the top score of 63 not out from 80 deliveries to earn the Player-of-the-March Award, and Carty supported with 48 from 65 balls. The Caribbean side successfully chased 182 under heavy skies at the Kensington Oval.

Hope and Carty defied the gloom of the weather and the defeat of the past few months including failure to qualify for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India to put on 91 unbroken and take West Indies to a morale-boosting win.

They came together with 91 for 4 in the 17th over, with plenty of time and opportunity for them to script a memorable end. They did not lose sight of the task, curbing their natural instincts and chose hard running between the wickets to get them over the finish line.

Carty, 26, had the privilege of formalizing the result with 80 deliveries remaining, ending the match with back-to-back boundaries, slapped over mid-off, off stand-in India Captain Hardik Pandya.

The result kept the three-match series alive after India won the first ODI by five wickets and sets up a mouth-watering finale in the historic third ODI at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad.

The win was also the first for West Indies over India in 10 matches spread over a period of three and a half years, and ended an unbeaten run of nine ODIs for the visitors, whose line-up didn’t include regular captain Rohit Sharma and master batsman Virat Kohli.

“I am very satisfied because the aim was to get back in the series. We got to win one more and need to come back strongly. We got to put in the effort and we displayed the right attitude in this match, and we need to replicate that in all disciplines.”

“It was a complete performance. We want to tick all the boxes and get the right result in the final game,” Hope said.