For nearly three hours on Wednesday night, Hyderabad believed. Sanju Samson was flaying the new ball to all corners of the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, India’s 50 had come up in three overs, and a target of 248 looked merely difficult rather than impossible. Then Keemo Paul came back for his second spell, and by the time the scoreboard caught up with the scorecard, the India vs West Indies 4th T20I had flipped on its head. West Indies won by 24 runs, bowling India out for 223 in 19.3 overs. The five-match series is level 2-2, and Saturday’s game at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium is now a decider. The figures come from Cricinfo’s live scorecard and Reuters’ match report.
How the India vs West Indies 4th T20I was lost in ten balls
India’s chase could not have started better. Samson smashed his fifty in 20 balls, finishing with 56 off 23, and he and Abhishek Sharma put on 60 for the first wicket before Paul intervened. In the fifth over, Paul removed Samson and Ishan Kishan in the space of three balls. India never fully recovered.
The middle overs became a slow tightening. Gudakesh Motie dismissed Abhishek for 29 and Naman Dhir for a duck in one over; captain Shreyas Iyer went for 16. Then, briefly, the chase was alive again. Tilak Varma (43 off 25) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (41 off 20) added 70 runs from 32 balls for the sixth wicket, and the equation dropped back toward manageable. Romario Shepherd broke the stand by removing Tilak, and Paul returned to finish the job. His 5/41 included three wickets in the 19th over, and with Arshdeep Singh unable to bat after his injury, India folded at 223. Outlook’s live blog reported the injury as the chase’s unhappy ending. Motie finished with 2/13, the most economical figures of a run-soaked night.
Hope is having a tour for the ages
West Indies’ total of 247/3 was built on one of the cleanest T20I hundreds you will see this year. Shai Hope finished 102 not out off 50 balls, with four fours and nine sixes, reaching the landmark with a six off the final delivery of the innings. He shared an unbroken 91-run stand off 43 balls with Sherfane Rutherford, who finished 49 not out off 26.
Here is the detail that makes the knock bigger than one night. Hope’s hundred was his fourth of this India tour and his second in the T20I leg alone, according to Lokmat Times’ match report. Shai Hope has now spent a fortnight treating Indian bowling as his personal highlight reel, and India, who won the toss and chose to bowl, have spent the same fortnight watching totals fly past 200. Shimron Hetmyer’s 33 off 12 and Rovman Powell’s 24 were the garnish. The chase that followed started at a run rate over 11 and still came up short, which tells you how imposing 247/3 really was.
The toss call India will replay on the flight to Bengaluru
Shreyas Iyer chose to bowl first, presumably banking on dew and on a batting line-up that had hunted down 250 in Ranchi earlier in the series. The gamble died in the middle overs, when India’s bowlers had no answer for Hope’s straight hitting. It was a rough night for a captain who had just climbed to career-best No. 4 in the ICC T20I rankings on Wednesday: 16 runs with the bat, and a series-sealing night that slipped away. India had led 2-1 after their 14-run win in Indore on Sunday, and our preview of this game had framed it as the night the series could end with a match to spare. It did not.
And yet, tucked inside a defeat, there was something worth keeping. This was the first time in the series that India chased under genuinely crushing pressure with a young side, and the sixth-wicket stand showed the bench can play. Nitish Kumar Reddy’s 41 off 20, in particular, was the innings of a player who does not need a second invitation. You lose a game and learn your squad; that is not a trade any captain minds making, especially with one game left.
Saturday in Bengaluru is now the tour’s entire story compressed into 40 overs. India have the better T20I record against West Indies by a wide margin, but records do not bat. Hope walks in with four tour hundreds. Paul walks in with a five-for and the 19th over fresh in India’s memory. If you want one number to carry into Saturday, make it this: West Indies have now posted 240-plus twice in four games, and they believe the decider is already half theirs.