5 min readNew DelhiOct 10, 2026 12:35 AM IST
It could rank among the most famous sixes in West Indies cricket. The lofted drive over extra cover that wrapped up the second highest chase in T20I history involving Test-playing members; a stroke that blended muscle and grace to raise Shai Hope’s sumptuous hundred, arguably one of the finest knocks in this format.
Nine balls still remained when West Indies completed the pursuit of 250 runs, breaking oodles of sweat but without freezing in clutch. Hope spread his arms and winked at the skies.
Some empathy should dwell on the bowlers, especially the spinners who struggled to grip the ball in excessively dewy conditions. The surface was utterly unkind to them, so much so that it didn’t seem to matter how they bowled or where they did.
Thirty three sixes and 46 fours were smeared in a day bowlers would wish existed only in the nightmares. Amidst all the carnage, off-spinner Roston Chase’s figures of 4-0-24-3 looks otherworldly, as though it did not exist. But such is the nature of the game that his effort would be forgotten in the lustre of Hope’s unconquered hundred. The West Indies captain has been in crushing form throughout both the white-ball series, and it could have been cruel had the mountain of runs he had compiled gone wasted. He is more Ramnaresh Sarwan rather than Brian Lara or Chris Gayle. He is not the archetypal Caribbean T20 basher like Andre Russell or Carlos Brathwaite. There were times when his steady-the-ship-game jarred in this format. He might never fetch a ludicrous IPL pay-check.
AS IT HAPPENED | INDIA VS WEST INDIES 2ND T20I HIGHLIGHTS
But this night in Ranchi would remain forever his. The circumstance was familiar. He took a single off the first ball, and saw chaos unfold around him. In the space of two Mayank Yadav deliveries, he lost two partners, Kamil Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer in a theatrical first over.
Mayank nailed Pooran with an evil short ball and Hetmyer with a short-of-length ripper. The stands buzzed as the tearaway ramped up the pace. A quick-kill loomed. Except it was not.
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Hope defied, and then denied. He counterpunched, blitzing Axar Patel for a pair of sixes and a four in the fourth over. Indians thought it was a storm, but turned out to be tempest. He let Rovman Powell do the heavy-lifting, but when Mayank uprooted his off-stump with a 149.5 kph bolter, the game seemed sewn up. But West Indies and Hope had other designs.
Ideal accomplice
He found an ideal accomplice in Sherfane Rutherford, no longer the premium IPL purchase he once was. But his 34-ball 84 blew India’s victory hopes, blow by blow.
Hope and Rutherford picked West Indies from a deeply troubled stage of 58 off 3 to 170 for 3 in 13 overs with a blend of relentless aggression, of both the cultured and brutal stroke-making. Hope batted with jaw-dropping calm and grace, before he ratcheted up power towards the end of the innings. Rutherford cuffed and carted India’s bowlers to submission. The spinners immersed the hands on saw dust, but the dew-splashed ball still slipped out of their hands. As did the game from India’s grasp.
Sherfane Rutherford of West Indies and Shai Hope of West Indies during the 2nd T20I match between India and West Indies at the JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi, India on October 9, 2026. (CREIMAS)
The game unravelled swiftly—Mayank dropped a sitter off Rutherford in the 10th over to instigate a sense of foreboding. In the middle, Shreyas Iyer furiously pranced around, trying to conceal his anger and frustration from his troops. Every bowler on the ground tried to shirk away from his eye-line, lest they be summoned to bowl on a strip designed in a batting heaven.
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His most trusted spinner, Patel, was pulverised for 23 deflating runs in the game’s 12th over. Shreyas threw the ball to Naman Dhir; Shai Hope and Sherfane Rutherford looted him for 18 runs. The target seemed achievable—80 from 42 balls.
But a ray of hope winked. Kuldeep Yadav dismissed Rutherford in the 15th over. Bouts of self-destruction could seize them. Kuldeep could confound Romario Shepherd and the rest. The Caribbeans still required 63 from 30 balls. Here, the game took another wicked twist. Rutherford and Hope thumped Axar and Kuldeep for a combined 36 runs. Hope swiped him for a brace of sixes, swapping timing for power. Shepherd dishevelled him over midwicket. The target was chopped off to 27 from 18 deliveries, a stroll by modern standards.
Moments later, powering Axar for a brace of sixes, Hope finished a memorable chase in the land of an all-time great finisher. Ushered in with a six, like the master MS Dhoni himself.
Brief Scores: India: 249/5 in 20 ov (Sanju Samson 82, Tilak Varma 44 not out; Roston Chase 3/24) lost to West Indies: 252/4 in 18.3 overs (Shai Hope 102 not out, Sherfane Rutherford 84; Mayank Yadav 3/36).
