Twitter Reactions: Centuries from Shimron Hetymer and Shai Hope stun India at Chepauk

West Indies have won their fourth consecutive ODI beating the overwhelming favourites India in the first of the three-match ODI series. Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope struck scintillating and contrasting tons to leave the crowd at the Chepauk stunned. The 288-run chase was never a stiff challenge for the visitors as they coasted to victory with eight wickets and more than two overs in hand.

Earlier in the day, India were put into bat first after the hosts decided to hand an ODI debut to Shivam Dube and also benched Yuzvendra Chahal. They got off to the worst possible start with the ball not coming on to the bat. Sheldon Cottrell superbly executed his plans to send back KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in the same over. Rohit Sharma also didn’t look his usual self during his 36-run knock which came off 56 balls.

At 80/3 in the 19th over, things didn’t look good for the Men in Blue. But the young duo of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant joined hands to rebuild the innings. Both of them exceptionally mixed caution with aggression to keep the scoreboard ticking and also got to their respective half-centuries. The 114-run partnership was taking the game away from the visitors only for Alzarri Joseph to strike at the perfect time.

Iyer got out for 70 and Pant too followed him soon to put the team in trouble in the last 10 overs. The southpaw, however, finally regained his form mustering 71 runs off 69 balls. Kedar Jadhav was enterprising in his shot selection even as Ravindra Jadeja ran hard between the wickets as India posted 287 runs for the loss of eight wickets after 50 overs.

But yet again, wickets falling at the wrong time hurt them and they didn’t get the required strong finish in the last three overs thanks to West Indies bowlers executing their variations perfectly.

A Cakewalk for the West Indies

Virat Kohli was happy to bat first after losing the toss and had hoped for the pitch to slow down. But the dew played its part as the ball came onto the bat nicely under the lights. Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer made the most of the conditions and the pummelled the bowlers to all the parts of the stadium. The West Indies lost Sunil Ambris early but that didn’t affect their morale.

The Caribbeans batted with a certain as Hope just concentrated on rotating the strike while Hetmyer played some exquisite strokes. The partnership grew in strength with every passing over and at the halfway mark, India looked helpless with no help from the surface. Rather one has to give the credit to both the West Indies batsmen for playing some sensible cricket against the spinners and taking calculative risks against the pacers.

India were one specialist bowler short in the game and they duly targetted Shivam Dube. The ploy worked wonders as the Hetmyer-Hope duo added 218 runs for the second wicket and by the time the former got out after scoring 139 runs off 196 deliveries (11 fours and 7 sixes), the result of the game was inconsequential. The hosts dropped catches as well while there were also a few fumbles in the field.

Hope continued to play the same way and notched up another excellent ton. Nicolas Pooran had some fun in the middle remaining unbeaten on 29 as West Indies sealed the chase in the 48th over of the innings. Hope also remained not out on 102 off 151 balls with seven fours and a solitary six to his name as the visitors took a 1-0 lead in the series.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: