West Indies’ auxiliary opener Shai Hope, who came in place of the ruled out Brandon King made an exceptional inning against the United States and handed the Windies their maiden victory of the Super 8 stage.

West Indies was scheduled to play their second Super 8 match of the tournament against the United States on June 22 in Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.

Ahead of the clash against the US, Cricket West Indies officially named Kyle Mayers as the replacement for the injured Brandon King but was expected to join the squad on Saturday.

West Indies included Shai Hope in the place of the injured opener for their clash against United States at Barbados.

West Indies who lost their first Super 8 game by 8 wickets against England get under pressure to win this game in order to stay ahead in the semifinals race. On the other hand, US also gets under the same pressure after losing their first game of the round against South Africa by 18 runs.

USA started the game brightly but post the powerplay, they were pegged back by Roston Chase who claimed 3/19. Russell on his behalf bagged three wickets and collapsed the US’ batting lineup.

Speaking of the match, winning the toss, West Indies decided to bowl first where United States opening batters Steven Taylor and Andries Gous opened the inning. Steven Taylor who was at the striker’s end made a steady start by scoring just 2 runs in the first five balls he faced.

In the second over, Andre Russell dismissed Taylor for 2 runs and made an early breakthrough. With a wicket in the second over, United States gets under pressure to build a decent partnership in the powerplay. Nitish Kumar and Andries Gous started to build a partnership as expected.

The duo added 48 runs for the second wicket. Motie broke the partnership by dismissing Nitish Kumar for 20 runs in the seventh over. Following the dismissal, Andries Gous who scored 29 off 16 deliveries lost his wicket to Alzarri Joseph in the 8th over before creating an impact on the scoreboard.

After the United States top order batters failed to score the needed runs, the middle-order batters were expected to build a match saving partnership but West Indies bowlers strangled them by bagging quick wickets.

At the end of 16 overs, US scored 102 runs for 6 wickets loss and got no momentum before entering the final 4 overs. With a handy, 14 off 6 from Ali Khan, United States scored 128 runs for 10 wickets loss at the end of 19.5 overs.

West Indies kick-started their run chase in an aggressive style and scattered US bowlers all around the stadium. Shai Hope and Johnson Charles opened the inning for West Indies and scored 67 runs for the first wicket.

During the process, Shai Hope secured a 26 balls fifty and registered his maiden half-century of the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Harmeet Singh broke the partnership by dismissing Charles for 15 runs. Though the US got their first breakthrough, Hope continued his attacking style and carried the Windies to cross 100 runs mark within 10 overs. At the end of 10 overs, West Indies scored 110 runs for a wicket loss.

With a triple sixes in the following over, West Indies reached the target and won the game by 9 wickets.