Last Updated on 10 months by Charbel Coorey

Cricket News: After his excellent century against England, Shai Hope revealed advice he received from MS Dhoni.

West Indies enjoyed an excellent victory in the first ODI against England after another terrific performance from Shai Hope. His 16th ODI century guided the Windies to a successful chase of 326, which looked in danger as the innings came to a standstill in the middle overs.

Hope (109* of 83 balls) combined with Romario Shepherd (48 off 28 balls) to score 89 runs in 8.3 overs to leave West Indies needing just 24 off the final 17 deliveries. After Atkinson kept England in the game in a 48th over which yielded just five, Hope took to Sam Curran to knock off the remaining 18 runs in three hits to seal the chase with seven balls and four wickets to spare.

Hope’s strike rate over the years has often resulted in the batsman being left out of conversations regarding the top ODI players in the world. But, he stepped up here in another show of how he has improved his striking, and he reminisced about his chat with MS Dhoni in the aftermath of the victory.

Shai Hope recalls chat with MS Dhoni to help seal run chase

A key feature of Hope’s innings was his ability to switch through the gears. He scored 26 runs off his first 35 balls as het got settled in. Then, he went on a rampage, smashing 83 off his next 48 balls to seal an excellent chase.

After the match, Hope revealed his thoughts during the innings. He recalled a chat with Dhoni where the Indian legend spoke about the importance of mindset when it comes to time.

“A very, very famous person, MS Dhoni, we had a chat a while ago and he was saying, ‘ you always have a lot more time than you think.’ That’s one thing that has stuck with me throughout the years I’ve been playing ODI cricket,” said Hope.

Hope also spoke of the importance of finishing off a run chase in the penultimate over. Things can always get tricky if it comes down to the final few balls or if a new batter is asked to hit the winning runs.

“After the second [six of the 49th over], I knew we pretty much had the game in the balance. If we had that over to finish the game, I always try to finish the game with one over to spare if I can. I don’t want to leave it to anyone else, so the aim was to finish off at the back end.”

“A very, very famous person, MS Dhoni, we had a chat a while ago and he was saying, ‘ you always have a lot more time than you think.’ That’s one thing that has stuck with me throughout the years I’ve been playing ODI cricket.”

Shai Hope in the post-match presentation

Hope not only scored his 16th century, but became the joint third-fastest to 5,000 ODI runs in history alongside Sir Vivian Richards and Virat Kohli. Only Babar Azam (97) and Hashim Amla (101) have done it in fewer innings.

For England, it was another hastening ODI defeat. The 2019 champions have now lost 14 of their past 24 completed ODIs following their T20 World Cup triumph last year, and have just come off a terrible World Cup campaign. The next ODI will also be played at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua where the new-look England team will be seeking to bounce back.