Shai Hope leads West Indies into Hyderabad needing a win to force a T20I decider

West Indies must win in Hyderabad on Wednesday to keep the T20I series alive, and their captain has made three hundreds in four innings against India on this tour

Shai Hope takes West Indies into the fourth T20I at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium trailing 2-1 with two matches left. A win sends the series to a decider at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on 17 October, while defeat hands India the series with a match to spare.

The visitors go in with the most productive batter of the tour leading them. Hope has made 104 in Guwahati, 162 not out in Mullanpur and 102 not out in Ranchi, three centuries in four innings against India across the two white-ball formats.

Indore showed what happens when he does not stay in. Arshdeep Singh removed him for 5 in the second over on Sunday, and West Indies, chasing 224, finished on 209 for 7.

Three hundreds in four innings

Hope's 104 from 94 balls in Guwahati was one of three centuries in West Indies' 405 for 7, their first 400-plus total in one-day internationals, made alongside Amir Jangoo's 114 and John Campbell's 101. India chased 406 down in 43.3 overs and won by eight wickets.

Three days later in Mullanpur he batted through the chase for 162 not out from 143 balls, taking West Indies to 352 for 5 and a five-wicket win. It was their only victory of an ODI series India took 2-1.

The T20I hundred in Ranchi was the fastest of the three. Hope reached fifty from 24 balls and a hundred from 45, finishing unbeaten on 102 with nine sixes and six fours.

The chase that levelled the series

West Indies were two wickets down inside the first over of that chase, Mayank Yadav removing Kamil Pooran for 4 and Shimron Hetmyer first ball off successive deliveries with 250 to get.

Hope and Sherfane Rutherford then added 120 from 54 balls for the fourth wicket. Rutherford made 84 from 37 before Kuldeep Yadav bowled the partnership apart, and Romario Shepherd's 34 from 13 finished the job.

The visitors got there at 252 for 4 with nine balls in hand, their highest successful chase in T20Is and the second highest in men's T20I history, behind South Africa's 259 against West Indies in 2023.

A start that keeps going missing

Hope's own reading of the Indore defeat began at the top of the innings. "Yeah we have to find a good opening partnership to lay the platform but can't point your finger on one or two guys," he said after the match.

Hetmyer's 43 from 26 balls and Pooran's 42 from 27 kept West Indies in range in Indore without ever matching India's rate, and Shamar Springer's unbeaten 35 from 11 arrived too late to change the result.

The pattern was set in Lucknow, where West Indies were bowled out for 171 in 19.1 overs and India knocked off the target in 14.4 overs for the loss of two wickets. Rutherford's 56 from 34 balls was the only half-century of the innings.

Hope points at the bowling

The captain was blunter still about what his attack did with the ball. "Probably with the ball, we could have executed better and we let a few boundaries through," he said, having put India in at Indore.

"But credit to the Indian bowlers. They bowled really well and showed us how to execute yorkers," Hope added. Arshdeep finished with 3-44 and was named player of the match; Roston Chase's 2-38 was the best of the West Indies figures.

West Indies have conceded 249 for 5 and 223 in the two matches in which India have batted first on this tour, and have defended a total only once, in the third one-day international.

India are not treating the lead as settled

Shreyas Iyer, whose side can close the series out on Wednesday, was careful not to write the tourists off. "West Indies, you can never take them lightly," India's captain said in Indore. "So, we had to make sure we never got complacent."

The warning has a record behind it. West Indies have already beaten India twice in three weeks, in the third ODI in Mullanpur and in Ranchi, and Hope has been at the centre of both.

The fourth T20I begins at 7pm IST on Wednesday, and a West Indies win would take the series to Bengaluru on 17 October.

Catch the match live updates, highlights, and full match coverage on CricRadio. Get fast, accurate, and ad-free updates throughout the game. Download the CricRadio app from the Play Store to stay connected. You can also get the live scores of cricket series directly on the CricRadio website for real-time coverage.