Hope Admits West Indies' Slow Start Cost Them T20 WC Virtual QF vs India

WI once again gave plenty of promise, hope and firepower, but their unique Caribbean flavour fizzled out during the virtual quarterfinal on Sunday for the last semifinal spot in the tournament. With Sanju Samson's risk-free 97* single-handedly chasing down 196 runs, WI once again face a Super Eight exit. India, on the other hand, will play against England in the semifinals at Mumbai. Perhaps, one of the factors in WI's loss was Shai Hope's sluggish 32 in 33 balls, at a strike rate of below 100, consisting of three fours and a six, which came during an opening stand of 68 runs in 53 balls.

Speaking during the post-match presentation, Shai Hope said, "Maybe a few short (the target), specially here on a chasing ground. Probably could have gone a bit more in the back end. Sanju played a really good innings as well, have to give him credit. But it would have been good if we got a few more runs. We probably did not start as well as we wanted to with the bat.

He also spoke on Jasprit Bumrah's double-wicket over, removing in-form Shimron Hetmyer and Roston Chase in the 12th over, saying, "He's (Bumrah) one of their strike bowlers, and when he has the ball in hand, something is going to happen. He broke the partnership specially in that situation where Hetty was going really well in the tournament. Just one of those crucial times in the game but yeah we got to 190-odd and gave ourselves a chance."

Hope also hailed his team's bowling throughout the tournament in terms of how they adapted to different conditions throughout the tournament.

"Gotta give the guys credit. Specially bowling in the powerplay. Akeal (Hosein) was very good, (Gudakesh) Motie as well once he came back in the team. Just could not get over the line today. You never want to end at this stage. We have got high standards set for ourselves. No other question for us. We have to play our best cricket on the day. We have to take the crucial moments and capitalise on them," he added.

Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to field first. Roston Chase (40 in 25 balls, with five fours and a six) and skipper Shai Hope (32 in 33 balls, with three fours and a six) put on an opening stand of 68 runs for first wicket, but WI slipped to 119/4 in 14.1 overs, despite a fiery cameo by Shimron Hetmyer (27 in 12 balls, with a four and two sixes). It was the pair of Jason Holder (37* in 22 balls, with two fours and three sixes) and Powell (34* in 19 balls, with three fours and two sixes) who put on a fiery stand of 76 runs in 35 balls, taking WI to 195/4 in 20 overs.

Jasprit Bumrah (2/36 in four overs) was India's leading bowler, with Varun Chakaravarthy and Hardik Pandya dropping a spell of 1/40 in four overs each.

In the run-chase, India was reduced to 41/2 within the powerplay. It was a 58-run stand between Samson and Suryakumar Yadav (18) which brought the chase back on track. Then Sanju went on to stitch partnerships with Tilak Varma (27 in 15 balls, with four boundaries and a six), Hardik Pandya (17) and Shivam Dube (8*), taking India to a five-wicket win.

- ANI