We can’t just expect to wake up one morning and be a great team: Shai Hope

Shai Hope (Photo Source: ICC)

West Indies’ World Cup dream was shattered on Saturday, July 1, as they were handed a seven-wicket defeat by Scotland in Harare in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers 2023. The Shai Hope-led side came into the Super Sixes stage without any points as they lost to Zimbabwe and Netherlands in the group stage of the competition. Hence, the Windies had to win all three games in the Super Sixes to remain alive in the competition.

However, much to their dismay, they were comprehensively beaten by Scotland. Following West Indies’ dismal performance in the tournament, Hope said that the team needs to focus on a lot of things and can’t just expect to wake up one morning and be a great team.

“It starts from the foundation. Preparation needs to be better. That’s from back home. So, yeah, it starts from there. We can’t just expect to wake up one morning and be a great team. There’s a lot of things that we need to focus on. And yeah, we need to control (what) we can control. Right now, we are here playing cricket, and we need to make sure we give our all to the West Indian fans,” said Hope in the post-match presentation.

The West Indies skipper further said with two games left, they will look to finish the tournament on a positive note.

“We know there’s two more games left. We need to find a way to bounce back, finish the tournament positively at least. We need to make sure we transfer the talent [back home] into consistent performances and that’s the only way we can rise in the rankings,” he added.

Coming back to the match, after being put in to bat first by Scotland, the West Indies were left reeking at 30/4 as Brandon McMullen (3/32, 9 overs) wreaked havoc with the ball. They were further reduced to 81/6 with inform batters Hope (13) and Nicholas Pooran (21) back in the hut.

West Indies have two games remaining against Oman and Sri Lanka

A 77-run stand off 96 balls between Jason Holder (45 off 79) and Romario Shepherd (36 off 43) helped them get to 181/10 in 43.5 overs. In reply, Matthew Cross (74* off 107) and McMullen (69 off 106) helped Scotland chase down the target in 43.3 overs to win the match by seven wickets.

Following their humiliating loss, West Indies have two matches remaining in the tournament, against Oman on 5th July and against Sri Lanka on 7th July, to salvage some pride.