Shai Hope takes blame as India knock West Indies out of T20 World Cup

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 mustwin Super Eight game here Defending champions India chased down a fairly stiff 196run target to knock the former winners out of the tournament at the Eden Gardens here on SundayThe 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 highscoring contest Yes Ill take the blame I should have batted a lot faster if thats what you want me to say said Hope in the postmatch media interaction without dodging any tough question here on SundayWhen youre leading you want to put your hand up and set the tone at the top It didnt happen for me today I just didnt get going today he concededBut in situations like this when youre struggling everyone struggles But I dont 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 earlyIt 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 Chases acceleration and the late flourish from Rovman Powell and Jason Holder lifted West Indies to 1954 the total felt underpar on a good Eden surface with dew aiding the chaseHope 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 youd love to hit every ball for six it doesnt happen Its 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 explainedHope further admitted that the powerplay phase could have been better utilised by his team We wanted 6570 in the powerplay We were 45 without loss so we had a platform With the batting depth we have I didnt see it as a big issue at the time but we didnt execute as well as we wantedCalling it a finemargin contest he said Its 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 lost tossHere in Eden Gardens chasing is usually better especially with the dew It always becomes a factor I dont think I could win a toss so Im always giving the guys the hard way out of itI dont 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 campaigns positivesThere are a lot of positives Our bowling was much better than in previous series The powerplay bowling especially stood up he notedSanju deserves AHope was effusive in praising Indias matchwinner Sanju whose unbeaten 97 anchored the home teams chase Having faced criticism and frequent exclusion in 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 Kishans blazing return Ishan was the preferred one with Abhishek Sharma in the opening positionBut following Indias 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 hes paced it really nicely He was very smart and calculated with the way he went about his strokes You must give him an Aplus with the way he played today But we wish he didnt have that innings today Hope saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever