Shai Hope scored centuries in both innings for West Indies. (Source: Reuters)
Till a few years ago, Shai Hope actually had the option of taking the Chris Jordan route and look to play international cricket for England. At 17, he attended St Bede’s School after being recruited by coach Alan Wells on his visit to Barbados, and he spent a few summers there attracting the attention of English cricket. Fortunately, for West Indies’ sake and probably his own, the younger of the Hope brothers chose to stick to the Caribbean. On Tuesday, he became only the first batsman to score a century in each innings at the historic Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds. The second of those, an unbeaten 118 of 211 balls took West Indies to a historic first Test win on English soil in 17 years as they chased down a daunting target of 322, losing only five wickets.
Yet, as former England opener-turned cricket pundit Ian Ward informed him about his significant individual achievement, all the 23-year-old Hope had to say was, “Yeah? Thanks for the news.” He looked relaxed and rested enough to go and score yet another ton despite having just walked off the field. West Indies had become only the second team to lose 19 wickets in a single day, losing inside three days in the first Test in Birmingham. Here, they were left to score 317 on the final day, the fourth-highest ever to be scored to win a Test on Day 5, and that’s exactly what they did with Kraigg Brathwaite adding 95 to his first innings score of 134.
Hope didn’t sound too fussed even during the post-match presentation as he picked up the Man-of-the-Match award. Asked how he felt after what his team had just managed to achieve against all odds, the young Bajan simply said, “Elated. We’ve been working really hard as a team and great to get over the line.” Then reminded about having averaged 18 coming into the Test without a single century to his name, Hope again sounded nonchalant while replying, “I’m a professional cricketer for a reason. I always believe in myself on and off the field. Yeah, always fancy our chances. We fought hard the entire game. So we needed to do well with the bat.”
Skipper Jason Holder too didn’t sound too surprised with the result, insisting that his team always believed they could do it. “I always believe in this group, we’ve done some outstanding things. I sent a text in our team chat this morning, ‘just believe’. I urged no one to move from their seats, and it was nerve-wracking in the end. There’ve been some hard times, but we’ve felt the support here,” he said.
