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West Indies captain Shai Hope underlined the importance of starting strongly in major tournaments, saying there is no room for mistakes in World Cups, following his side's convincing win by 35 runs in their T20 World Cup opener against Scotland at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
Reflecting on the nature of multi-nation tournaments, Hope stressed that, unlike bilateral series, teams do not get the luxury of recovery after a defeat. "Yeah, you just hit the nail on the head there. There's no margin for error in these tournaments. It's not like a bilateral series where you've got another game to get back into the series if you come up on the losing end, but a good start is all we're after," Hope said during the post-match presentation, as quoted by Cricbuzz. Hope noted that Scotland had begun to build momentum during the middle overs before Shepherd struck and took a hat-trick. "They really got a nice start there, fighting the middle overs. They were going pretty nicely, and it got a lot better for the bat on. And just coming in there, taking those crucial wickets, they're putting further pressure back on their batting lineup," he explained. Lauding Shepherd's growing reputation in the shortest format, Hope added, "Shepherd, I think, is the second hat-trick in T20. So great for him and just to see him going well with the ball as well." After losing the contest, Scotland captain Richie Berrington said, "Yeah, look, I think as a team, we've got that belief now that we can do it both ways. It was always a good option to bat first and get a score on the board. But the belief in this team, we know on the world stage, we have to be comfortable chasing or setting a score. (on Hetmyer) Yeah, he certainly is. I thought the first 10 overs, they were excellent in that first innings of the ball. And obviously his innings just changed the momentum a little bit to push them up to that 180 score." Shimron Hetmyer, who won the Player of the Match, hailed Shepherd's bowling performance. "That was phenomenal (on Romario Shepherd). I actually thought he was going to get this, to be fair (on the PoTM award). That's what we call it. That's just not often you see a guy get five and a hat-trick as well. But I'm excited for him. He's really been working hard on his bowling, and I'm really, really proud of him and happy." Shimron Hetmyer's blistering 64, followed by a fantastic bowling performance from Romario Shepherd, who picked up a five-wicket haul including a hat-trick, helped the Windies to defend their 183-run target. (ANI)
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