Hope is the Glue Man!

I am surprised at the emotional response to my observation that in T 20 cricket generally speaking a strike rate of 130 will not win you too many games. An overall strike rate of 130 over 20 overs is actually 156 which has occasionally won games but only on poor T 20 pitches.
Let me state T 20 cricket is not real cricket and I am surprised by some of the comments on this thread such as the admiration as to how Shai Hope looks at the crease.The whole point of T 20 cricket is how quickly you score,ALL ELSE BE DAMNED!!!!If you bat like Sir Carl while hitting nuff sixes then you are fine.
It is my belief that many traditional West Indian cricket fans are unwilling to grasp the mores of T 20 cricket.You have to regard each ball as a resource and you only have 120.In test cricket this resource is unlimited but there are the same amount of batsmen.Each team has 6 top order batsmen and 2 all rounders so 8 men have to share the 120 balls.If you have already utilized 20 balls you have already used more than your share and any additional balls have to be put away.If you do not think that way then you are unlikely to be a successful T 20 batsman.You have to be able to score off good deliveries and manipulate the ball into free spaces so that you can get doubles and of course to hit sixes at will.It is decidedly different from even ODI cricket and not everyone has the correct mindset for it.
In fairness to Shai Hope this season he has been a model of consistency and in 3 innings he had substantial scores with scoring rates of better than 150.However he has also had 3 innings where he utilized 46,29 and 27 balls with scoring rates less than 120.
GAW has had very good knocks from Sampson, Hetmyer & Shepherd and with Tahir,Motie and Moeen having great spells and Pretorius doing his bit they are a good team and about to play in the title game for the 8th time.
I am sorry that my Bajan friends were upset about my post but that is how I see it and if it makes them feel any better I am no fan of anyone who does not utilize their talents to the fullest in the furtherance of West Indies cricket.

In reply to Dukes

By the way this player has played 69 T20i with a SR 126.05 , 0/6 tons/ 50s would say the same observation about him as you posted about Shai Hope?

In reply to tc1



My question to you is

How does Hetmyer's poor T 20 International record change what I said about Shai Hope?

In reply to Dukes

GAW has had very good knocks from Sampson, Hetmyer & Shepherd

The above praises Hetmyer for produce a knock once 30 innings, while condemning Shai for playing match situation. In your outburst you devalued Shai's impact on the GAW this season while heaping glory on your protege Hety, Sampson , Shepherd and others.

Not once in your post did you acknowledge Shai's value to GAW.

In reply to Dukes

It's heartening to see an avid red ball fan from long time tackle and address with merit the requirements of T20 batting. Without rehashing all you said, the prime concern is maximizing run scoring off EVERY ONE of 120 deliveries. IF you are going to use up a considerable number of those balls batting up the order a SR of 130 is not winning you many matches. It also behooves others to take greater risk, hence greater failure.

I share your concern over Shai in that regard. It is why with Pointing at DC in the IPL he didn't see much game time. Even if he averages over 50, he won't bat at 3 under the modern franchise coach.

Having said that, Providence produces THE most unfriendly T20 pitches in the Caribbean. It offers bowlers more scope. It suits Shai's style and approach to T20 batting. Therefore at Providence I can live with his output @130 SR provided:
1. He does stay in AND accelerates as he goes deep.

2. The openers go at 140-150 SR in the PP. GAW has the worst pp returns this season of the 4 playoff teams. Quentin's promotion has helped bigly. All too often Shai has had to practically open the batting ever since he's come to GT because the franchise has generally lacked proactive and proficient openers barring Gurbaz and Ayub!

3. GAW bats Shimron at 4 whether they set a total or chase. Striking at 166 SR or higher between overs 7-14 gives Pretorius and Sheppard the groundswell to kick on after 15.

I'll stop there.

It's just unfortunate that across the board red ball oriented folks are not stepping out the mould and taking on board the intricacies of short form batting. That is troublesome because WI fortunes in T20 cricket isn't going to go anywhere if our BATTING panders to conservatism rather then INTENT and RISK MANAGEMENT!

In reply to tc1




U R correct!!!

It was not once it was TWICE!!!!!!

In reply to cumberland

The reason I have started to pay more attention to T 20 cricket in the past 18 months is because it affords me the opportunity to engage in another of my hobbies and that is MATHEMATICS.I have come up with a lot of algorithms and scenarios wrt the power play, the middle overs and the "death overs".It is fun and gives me an understanding as to why some decisions are made in the IPL.

In reply to tc1

In reply to tc1



How CWI, Pollard,Simmons turned a temperament aggressive batter into cow lasher....
Hety did play test....played important role against England in 2019 series.... setting up series victory...played brilliantly vs Bangladesh in Bangladesh...but then came Simmons and Pollard... with Skerritt..... Dropped for failing yo-yo test.... dropped Hety and Lewis.....both players moved on....Played T-10 and T-20..... IPL transformed Hety into finisher....6-18 balls...
In the meantime,Pollard the mentor...managed to turn talent Pooran into tit-bit player...retired him internationally.....

Hope Keidan Pollard also earn millions by being tit- bits..mentored by father....just T-20.....

In reply to Dukes

While I have always and will always continue to respect our views here,
I believe that it is myopic to view all T20 games with one set of lenses.
There will be pitches where the batsmen can strive and bowlers die,
and other times where the pitches do too much for the bowlers that it is impossible to score fast.


Let me put it out there again that I am a Mudlands supporter in all Windies competitions.
There is something about Guyana, their/my President that rub me the right way.
There are stupid rumors about Bajans hating Guyanese etc...
I am certainly not one of those type of Bajans.

This season, Mudlands have missed the park with team selection.
The opening situation is abysmal to say the least.
I watch most of the Mudlands games until I fall asleep nights.
Bermuda recognize daylight savings time so we are 1 hour ahead most territories there.
Even worse with 9pm Bermuda time starts.
I am 63, thus I have a 9pm-ish to 5am-ish set sleep routine.

Hope innings were cases of situational awareness and adapting to suit.
How I would love to see Hope come in with the score over 100 and still in the first half of the innings.
Playing under the Caribbean poor lights, poorly prepared pitches, noise decibels level,
and poor starts, should and will impact T20 #3 batsmen.
Imagine coming out to bat, knowing that the team is heavily dependent on you.

I will love to see the end of Tahir, Ali, Hassan Khan and Brooks Warriors career.
Although Tahir still taking wickets, his salary is way too high.

I will reiterate that HOPE IS THE BEST T20 BATSMAN IN WARRIORS TEAM.
Probably second only to Pooran in West Indies as well.

In reply to TanteMerle


One of the difficulties in assessing sports is the involvement in emotion and loyalties which tend to make objectivity and truth elusive.The ability to listen and digest opposing views is a helpful trait.
I keep saying that T 20 cricket is qualitatively and quantitatively different from 50 over cricket.It is NOT a shortened version of 50 over cricket BECAUSE you have the SAME NUMBER OF BATSMEN with 60% LESS RESOURCES (BALLS).
It is the ability to internalize these facts and the consequences of them that helps you to better evaluate players.
AS somebody who grew up watching Test cricket and then later a different version of limited over cricket it requires a change in thinking to adapt to T 20 cricket in 2025.I ask you to not jut hear these comments but to INTERNALIZE them and UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY MEAN.
Traditionally in looking at test batsmen we look at OVERALL average first. That is somewhat relevant in ODI cricket but IRRELEVANT in T 20 cricket.In 50 over cricket,OVERALL SCORING RATE is IMPORTANT but in T 20 cricket it is less so.The reason for this is the oversize influence an INDIVIDUAL has on INDIVIDUAL MATCHES.What become THE MOST IMPORTANT MATRIX is HOW MANY MATCH WINNING KNOCKS did you play??
What is a MATCH WINNING KNOCK?
I define it ONLY IN RETROSPECT
It is easier to define it for batsmen batting second.A team scores 179 and thus the other team has to score 180 or at a scoring rate of 150.Clearly a batsman who makes a score over 50 runs at a scoring rate of greater than 165 has played a match winning knock.The greater the amount of runs, the closer down to a scoring rate of 150 defines that.If you make 80 at SR of 155= MW but if you score 30 runs at 155 that is not.However if you score 30 at 200 it is.
I find that T 20 cricket forces you to constantly use mathematical formulae to evaluate cricketers and that is the source of my recent fascination with it.I have given some simple examples but it can get much more intricate when you factor in phase of the game and certain key bowlers and conditions and targeting of specific bowlers and such matters.

I hope that having read this piece yo can evaluate if any of it makes sense and plug it in to future evaluations.If you find it does not make sense then explain why and give an explanation as to what matrices you use in evaluating T 20 batters ( not batsmen!!!LOL)