Shai Hope on West Indies comprehensive nine-wicket win over USA

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Shai Hope on West Indies comprehensive nine-wicket win over USA  22/06/2024  Kensington Oval, Bridgetown

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00:00Congratulations, Shea, on your knot and the victory for the West Indies.

00:07Just start by giving us your assessment of the team's performance, given the circumstances

00:12around the victory.

00:13I would say very clinical, especially coming off the loss that we had a couple of days

00:18ago.

00:19It's great to see the guys understood the assignment today and we played the cricket

00:23that we wanted to play.

00:24It's important for us to know that we continue in this vein because we see what's at stake

00:28now.

00:29We're very happy with the bounce ball that we did today and there's a lot more cricket

00:33to play and we're looking forward to it.

00:35Personally, what does the knot mean for you and to do it in front of your home crowd?

00:39It must be special.

00:40Yeah, it's a great feeling.

00:41Again, whatever the team requires, that's me and, unfortunately, Kingy had to leave

00:47us.

00:48Hopefully, he recovers quickly, but yeah, I had to go at the top this time around and

00:52the aim was just to get off to a good start.

00:54We see the importance of finishing the game early as well.

00:57I had a good time in the middle, good surface, and I enjoyed batting tonight.

01:01What we saw there from you tonight, Shea, was very, very explosive, perhaps a bit out

01:06of character.

01:07Have you ever batted as well as that in a T20 game?

01:10I would like to throw that question back at you.

01:12Why is it all the character in your eyes?

01:15Many people might see you as a textbook batsman, grafting, maybe batting at a strike rate of

01:21say 105, 110, but this evening, I mean, you really upped the ante.

01:26I guess you need to watch a little more cricket, then.

01:29But yeah, again, just playing the situation, we understood what's at stake.

01:34We know that in this situation here, we could play apart, so 105 strike rate wasn't going

01:40to be the play today, so again, just playing the situation, that's one thing that I pride

01:45myself on as a batsman, as a cricketer, and yeah, we just did the job today.

01:51At the start there, going out to chase, were you aware of the different calculations in

01:54terms of what was required to go ahead of England, to go ahead of South Africa?

01:58Not entirely.

01:59The main aim today, coming out in the meetings as well, was just to get the W, ensure we

02:04play our cricket, and the important thing is to focus on our skills, not necessarily

02:10get too far ahead of ourselves, because we understood the importance of winning the game

02:15first and foremost, because if we didn't win the game, then we know what's going to happen,

02:18so winning the game, and as long as we take our boxes, then I think the rest will take

02:22care of itself, and I guess that's what happened today.

02:25Shea, just carrying on from this, even at the start of the chase, you hadn't calculated

02:31that you need to get these runs and a certain number of overs to go past South Africa on NRR?

02:37Not entirely, as I said before, we didn't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, because

02:42sometimes that can play on the negative side.

02:45So, yes, we understood the importance of getting the game finished quickly, but we didn't want

02:50to get too far ahead of ourselves, we just played the power play, the aim was to play

02:53the power play as normal as we could, put away the bar balls, put the guys under pressure,

02:58start the over stuff like that, and then we assessed after the power play and then decided

03:02that we wanted to finish by a certain stage, so that's what came out of the plans in the meetings.

03:07Aisha, congratulations to you and the team.

03:16You have had one or two hiccups, well, maybe more like one, in terms of the bowling rope.

03:24While you may not have maximized your batting or something, I think that in the previous

03:29game the bowling maybe wasn't as impactful as one would have wanted.

03:34I noticed that there's a lot of dependence on the pacers, although you've got three spinners,

03:38and it tends to be a pattern that the spinners tend not to bowl out, although they have often

03:45been the most economical of the bowlers, and tonight was an example of that, where Moti

03:49and Hosain didn't bowl out.

03:50Is this a particular policy, where you aim not to bowl out the spinners, or is it just

03:56according to the flow of the game?

03:57I think you know who's the best person to answer that question.

04:01Yes, I know, but I just hope that you would have some insight from your team meetings.

04:06Again, if you're watching over from the sidelines, you'd understand that it's horses for courses.

04:11It's not every day that each bowler would bowl out.

04:14We've got more than five bowlers in the team, so depending on what's required in a certain

04:19situation, then we would decide to lean towards a particular bowler.

04:23It just so happened that the spinners didn't bowl out today.

04:25I'm sure if the pitch was ragging a bit more, because I thought that the serve was pretty

04:28good to bat on.

04:29The ball was coming on nicely, so I'm sure that's the reason why rubbermen tend to lean

04:34towards the pacers in the back, especially.

04:37But if the pitch was gripping a bit more, if it was spinning a lot more, stopping, holding,

04:41then I'm sure you'd see 12 overs of spin.

04:43But again, it's just a plain situation, understanding what is required at a particular time, and

04:50whoever bowlers we have to do the job on that day, then I'm sure we're going to choose them.

04:56Smith Patel from Crickbuzz.

04:58So how special do you think the knock was?

05:02It feels like it was the stuff of dreams, a World Cup game in your backyard, and you

05:07scoring in this fashion.

05:09And also, a word on the atmosphere out there, because it was kind of mesmerizing for someone

05:16like me, who's been to the Caribbean for the first time.

05:19And it was like party from ball one to ball 200, you know, until the end.

05:25So that sounds like you enjoyed it today then.

05:27Perfect.

05:28To the full extent.

05:29Ah, lovely.

05:30People ask me to go to Oysters now.

05:31Yeah, it was an amazing crowd.

05:35It's nice to see everyone came out and supported us today.

05:38Something that we get in the Caribbean, when we're doing well, we tend to see a lot more

05:42supporters out there.

05:43So that means you must be doing something right if you've got a solo crowd.

05:47But yeah, the crowd was rocking today.

05:49I thought that the support was amazing.

05:51Again, I'm from Barbados.

05:53So playing in front of this lovely crowd meant a lot more to me.

05:57And scoring some runs and winning the game for the team felt even more special.

06:01So I'm very happy to do that.

06:03Yeah, Shea, you mentioned the crowd and the crowd's support.

06:06Obviously, the West Indies have done tremendous in the group stage.

06:09We didn't get the Super 8 stage after the start that we wanted.

06:13But what is your message here to the West Indian fans around the region?

06:17What do you want to tell them at this point in terms of the tournament?

06:22Keep rallying.

06:23We know that's our motto.

06:25We always talk about rallying around the West Indies.

06:27That's exactly what we need to keep doing.

06:29The team rallying around each other.

06:31Fans need to do the same.

06:32We're out there fighting for each and every one of us.

06:35So you understand the importance and the magnitude of the tournament.

06:38We're playing a home World Cup, something that I'm sure a lot of cricketers over their

06:43careers may not get the opportunity to do.

06:46So we understand the importance of this in particular.

06:50And we know how much the fans really want us to win.

06:52So we're out there fighting.

06:53We're doing it for them.

06:54And it's great to see the support.

06:55I hope that it continues for the rest of the tournament.

06:58Shea, I can see why you were not pleased when you were asked about your strike rate.

07:03Because your strike rate has been upwards for the last two years.

07:06I just wanted to ask you, what has changed in the last two years?

07:11Was it just the conditions earlier?

07:12Or is it you have gone back and added things to your batting?

07:16Can you explain these last two years?

07:18To be honest, it's just the situation, man.

07:20Whatever requires it.

07:22There's some games where the conditions may be challenging.

07:27And you have to fight.

07:28You can't just go out there and try to smash every ball for six or four.

07:32Someone has to stick in and play along and end up with five or one ten.

07:37So again, people, I don't think people realize that.

07:41Shea, ZZID with Crick Exec.

07:45Today's victory was pretty resounding.

07:49It was pretty clinical.

07:52But I have a question for you about your opposition.

07:55You've been playing internationally for almost a decade.

07:59I would imagine most of your career you never thought, gave much thought to the US as a

08:04national team.

08:05They never came on your radar that often, I would imagine.

08:08But you've seen the tournament they've had so far until today.

08:13What can you say about them as a team despite the performance today?

08:17Plain and simple, you can't get to the Super 8 stage without playing good cricket.

08:24They're supposed to be the best eight teams in the tournament at this stage.

08:26So they showed why they deserve to be here.

08:31And I must say they play some really good cricket up to this stage.

08:34I played against a few of the guys.

08:36I played with some of the guys as well.

08:37Aaron Jones, who grew up here.

08:40But yeah, I must commend them for their journey so far.

08:45You can see why they're here in the Super 8.

08:48So I must commend them, yeah.

08:50You didn't play in the first three games, right?

08:52You came in for the last game of the group stage, did reasonably well, but then found

08:56yourself on the bench for the Starleague Super 8, called up again tonight.

09:00I mean, against that background, how much of a challenge is it to keep focus?

09:05Just have to stay ready.

09:06In a tournament like this, there's a reason why we have 15 players, and all of them need

09:12to be ready whenever the time comes.

09:15And again, there are different conditions that we have to face.

09:21We've got St. Lucia, which is one of the better surfaces.

09:25Then we've got Guyana, which tends to turn and play a little bit lower.

09:28So again, horses for courses.

09:30You've got to ensure that you're ready to play each situation, and we have players to

09:35play in certain conditions as well.

09:38So again, everyone is ready to play.

09:40We have a full squad of players.

09:41It's not just 11 guys in the team.

09:43So yeah, I understand the reason why I'm not playing, but everyone in the 15 would love

09:50to be out there in the 11, but we understand the reason for the 11 going out there on a

09:54particular day, but we're all ready to play.

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