I take blame as captain: Shai Hope on WI exit from T20WC

Taking responsibility for the West Indies’ elimination from the T20 World Cup, skipper Shai Hope said he should have batted faster at the top to post a more challenging target for India in their must-win Super Eight game here.

Defending champions India chased down a fairly stiff 196-run target to knock the former winners out of the tournament at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday.

The visitors appeared at least 20 runs short as Hope ate up 33 balls for his 32, striking at just over 96, including 17 dot balls that probably cost them heavily in a high-scoring contest.

“Yes, I’ll take the blame. I should have batted a lot faster — if that’s what you want me to say,” said Hope in the post-match media interaction without dodging any tough question, here on Sunday.

“When you’re leading, you want to put your hand up and set the tone at the top. It didn’t happen for me today. I just didn’t get going today,” he conceded.

“But in situations like this, when you’re struggling, everyone struggles. But I don’t think I was batting badly.”

India had the perfect plan to tighten the marauding Windies after Suryakumar Yadav opted to bowl. He went in with Arshdeep Singh, Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel in the powerplay and they did their job, keeping Hope quiet early.

It was then that mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, held back deliberately for the middle phase, bowled him with a delivery that skidded through to rattle the stumps.

Though opener Roston Chase’s acceleration and the late flourish from Rovman Powell and Jason Holder lifted West Indies to 195/4, the total felt under-par on a good Eden surface with dew aiding the chase.

Hope, however, said the shortfall of runs was not for lack of intent.

“It was a bit of both. I hit a few fielders and they bowled well. As much as you’d love to hit every ball for six, it doesn’t happen. It’s just that I was hitting the fielders and then trying to play the situation a bit more.

“Obviously, I wanted to bat a little bit deeper into the innings and face most of the spin threat in the middle,” he explained.

Hope further admitted that the powerplay phase could have been better utilised by his team.

“We wanted 65-70 in the power play. We were 45 without loss, so we had a platform. With the batting depth we have, I didn’t see it as a big issue at the time, but we didn’t execute as well as we wanted.”

Calling it a fine-margin contest, he said: “It’s always a game of small margins. There are so many moments you can look back at and say, maybe we should have done a little more or a little less of something else. But one team has to win.”

He further said the conditions aided the chasing side and rued the lost toss.

“Here in Eden Gardens, chasing is usually better, especially with the dew. It always becomes a factor. I don’t think I could win a toss, so I’m always giving the guys the hard way out of it.

“I don’t think - I won a toss this tournament? One? Okay. Probably before that, the rest of the series, maybe one or two. Yeah, so that always putting me on the back foot.”

However, looking at the broader picture, Hope chose to focus on the campaign’s positives.

“There are a lot of positives. Our bowling was much better than in the previous series. The powerplay bowling especially stood up,” he noted.

Sanju deserves A+:  Hope was effusive in praising India’s match-winner Sanju, whose unbeaten 97 anchored the home team’s chase. Having faced criticism and frequent exclusion in the recent past, Sanju made the opportunity count in the biggest game.

A natural opener, he was not the first choice of the side at the start of the tournament after Ishan Kishan’s blazing return. Ishan was the preferred one with Abhishek Sharma in the opening position.

But following India’s batting meltdown against South Africa, the management had to fall back on his experience at the top.

He repaid that faith with a blazing start against Zimbabwe and then produced the innings of his life at the Eden.

“He shot the ball very nicely from the beginning all the way through to the end of the innings and he’s paced it really nicely. He was very smart and calculated with the way he went about his strokes.

“You must give him an A-plus with the way he played today. But we wish he didn’t have that innings today,” Hope said.