St John’s [Antigua], March 11 (ANI): After playing a match-winning knock against Sri Lanka in the first ODI of the three-match series, West Indies opening batsman Shai Hope said that he wants to score as many runs as he can for his team.
“Just love batting. Honestly like spending time out in the middle and bat for long. The key is just staying out as long as possible for the team and to bring the game home, I wasn’t able to do it today but that is the aim. Just trust my ability, understand the situation and try to negate the threat they throw at us. All of them bowled well in spells, obviously, Hasaranga is their main threat and I think we played him pretty well and made sure we didn’t give him any wickets,” said Hope after the conclusion of the first ODI.
“Thanks for the information, I didn’t know on being the 8th WI player to score 10 ODI tons. It is a great feeling. I want to score as many runs as possible for the team and win as many games as I can. Being away from the game for so long, that’s all you pretty much know, the main thing is to be out there playing the game. It was great to be back,” he added.
Shai Hope and Evin Lewis played knocks of 110 and 65 respectively as West Indies defeated Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series on Wednesday (local time) at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
Chasing 233, Windies got off to a fantastic start as openers Hope and Lewis put on 143 runs for the first wicket. Sri Lanka had no answers for the duo and both Windies batters put on 143 runs inside 29 overs.
Sri Lanka did manage to dismiss Lewis (65) and Hope (110), but in the end, Darren Bravo (37) and Jason Mohammed (13) guided the hosts to an eight-wicket win with 18 balls to spare.
Earlier, a spirited bowling performance helped the West Indies bundle out Sri Lanka for just 232 here in the first ODI. Both sides will now lock horns in the second ODI on Friday. (ANI)