Hope hundred, Paul fifer give Windies much to play for in Bengaluru
West Indies 247 for 3 (Hope 102*, Rutherford 49*; Prince 1-36) beat India 223 all out (Samson 56, Tilak 43; Paul 5-41) by 24 runs
The West Indies defeated India by 24 runs in the fourth T20 International in Hyderabad on Wednesday to set up a decider in the five-match series. Captain Shai Hope and Sherfane Rutherford put on an unbeaten 91-run partnership to take the Caribbean side to a mammoth 247 for three, before Keemo Paul’s five-wicket haul led a polished bowling effort to restrict India’s explosive batting line-up.
The victory levels the series 2-2 and sets up a decisive contest in Bengaluru.
It was at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad that India amassed 297 for 6 against Bangladesh in 2024. And despite their huge total today, it was far from a fluent innings from the West Indies; there were noticeable periods of lulls. They had other factors going against them as they stepped out to defend.
Positives, from a bowling perspective, for the visitors had been hard to find throughout this series. Not to mention that if you were going to assemble a World XI batting line-up, it probably wouldn’t read too far from this current Indian top-order.
After a quiet first over, in which Roston Chase conceded seven runs, Sanju Samson put his head down. He took two maximums and a boundary from the second, then accounted for all but one of the 25 runs scored off Chase in the third.
