Shai Hope's 102 off 45 balls carries West Indies to 252, the highest T20I chase against India

West Indies chased 250 in 18.3 overs at the JSCA stadium in Ranchi on Friday night and won the second T20I by six wickets. Shai Hope finished 102 not out off 45 balls, his second Twenty20 international hundred. Sherfane Rutherford made 84 off 37. India had posted 249 for 5. ESPNcricinfo's report put the West Indies innings at 252 for 4, with Mayank Yadav taking 3 for 36.

Hope won the toss, his first of the tour, and the chase became the highest successful T20I chase against India and the highest West Indies have completed in the format. The visitors scored 204 runs in boundaries, a West Indies T20I record, against India's 148 in boundaries. Hope's eighth and ninth sixes, in the 19th over, closed the game with nine balls left. He was not out.

How the chase was built

West Indies were 58 for 3 when Rutherford joined his captain in the sixth over. From there the two added the bulk of the innings. Hope's hundred came at a strike rate above 220. Rutherford's 37-ball 84 was the faster of the two hands. A chase of 250 in 20 overs needs 12.5 an over from the first ball. They did not need the last nine deliveries.

The result is the fifth successful chase in five international matches on this tour. That run covers both the one-day games, where Hope had already been hard to remove, and the first two T20Is. A captain who wins the toss, bats second, and finishes the chase himself has used the conditions he asked for. Dew was visible by the middle of the India innings, which is the usual Ranchi night pattern in October: the ball comes on, spin loses grip, and a target that looks steep at the innings break becomes gettable if the top order survives the new ball.

India's 249, and where it stalled

Sanju Samson made 82 and Tilak Varma 44 in India's 249 for 5. Roston Chase took 3 for 24. Shivam Dube scored five off seven balls from the deliveries Chase bowled at him in that spell, and India were 161 for 3 after 14 overs. That is a strong platform that had stopped accelerating. Shreyas Iyer and Tilak then scored at better than two runs a ball in the closing overs. Shamar Joseph bowled a tight 16th over, and Shamar Springer removed Samson. The finish still left India short of the rate West Indies later found.

Chase's 3 for 24 is the figure that kept 249 from becoming 270. On a dew-affected pitch, an off-spinner taking three wickets at six an over in a T20 is the spell that decides whether the chase is a formality. It was not a formality at 58 for 3. It became one once Hope and Rutherford were set.

What the series looks like from here

Hope is player of the match. The series number depends on the first T20I, which West Indies had already used as part of the five successful chases. A side that has hunted targets all tour, and has just hunted the biggest one India have conceded in the format, arrives at the next match with the chase as a proven method rather than a one-night pitch. India's question is narrower: Samson has a score, the death overs produced runs, and the middle overs against Chase did not. Nine balls left and a not-out hundred is the margin Ranchi actually produced.