West Indies ride Hetmyer’s good form, Shepherd’s hat-trick to victory against Scotland
West Indies 182 for 5 (Hetmyer 64, King 35; Currie 2-23) beat Scotland 147 all out (Berrington 42, Bruce 35; Shepherd 5-20) by 35 runs
Shimron Hetmyer did not arrive in India with the West Indies team earlier this week after he was left stranded with visa issues in South Africa following their T20 International series. The left-hander, however, turned up in time to deliver a player-of-the-match performance, which got the Caribbean side off to a winning start at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
“That part is irrelevant; he was here,” Captain Shai Hope beamed in the post-match presser. Hetmyer beat Chris Gayle’s record for the fastest fifty (22 balls) by a West Indian at the World Cup on his way to a 36-ball 64. West Indies’ new No.3 strode to the crease with his side in a scuffle at 54 for 1 in the ninth. In his knocks of 75 and 48 in that position against South Africa, the Guyanese struck at 192.2.
“Hetty, again he's been in some tremendous form; he's been consistent. We asked him to go out in the number three position and show a bit more responsibility, and he's taken it [on], as you can see,” Hope continued.
“We know how good of a player he is, and I don't think we were maximizing his true potential all the way down [the order]. So we just asked him to do the job. I'm glad that he accepted the challenge, and it's great to see him playing the way Hetty normally plays. Hopefully he can continue throughout the tournament and give us that nice start that we asked for.”