Hope silenced his critics with his thunderous knock studded with eight sixes and four fours as West Indies chased 130 in 10.5 overs. Commenting on his innings, Hope said he stuck to his plans and played according to the situation.
"To be honest, it's just the situation, man. It's whatever it takes. There are some games where the conditions can be challenging and you have to fight. You can't just go out and try to smash every ball for six or four." "Someone has to play along and I don't think people realize that," Hope said in the post-match press conference.
The opener added that he knew that the net run rate would come into play to support the team in the semi-final spot and his blistering strike rate was a reflection of that.
"We understood what is at stake here. We know that in this situation the run rate could play a role. Therefore, the strike rate of 105 was not going to be the play today. So again, just playing the situation. "That's the one thing I take pride in as a batsman, as a cricketer," he said.
The West Indies lost their first Super Eight match against defending champions England and needed to win by a large margin against the United States to remain in contention for the semi-finals.
When asked if they had made any calculations for the chase, Hope replied: "Not at all. We didn't want to get too ahead of ourselves because sometimes that can play on the negative side."
"So yes, we understood the importance of finishing the game quickly, but we didn't want to get too ahead of ourselves. The goal was to play the powerplay as normal as possible, save the bad balls, put the guys under pressure at the beginning of the over, things like that, and then we evaluated after the power play and then decided that we wanted to finish at a certain stage," he added.
With two points from as many games, the Windies and England are in second and third place respectively and are very much alive in the tournament.
The West Indies will take on table-topping South Africa at North Sound in Antigua on Monday, June 24, while England will play bottom-placed United States in Bridgetown on Sunday.
"To be honest, it's just the situation, man. It's whatever it takes. There are some games where the conditions can be challenging and you have to fight. You can't just go out and try to smash every ball for six or four." "Someone has to play along and I don't think people realize that," Hope said in the post-match press conference.
The opener added that he knew that the net run rate would come into play to support the team in the semi-final spot and his blistering strike rate was a reflection of that.
"We understood what is at stake here. We know that in this situation the run rate could play a role. Therefore, the strike rate of 105 was not going to be the play today. So again, just playing the situation. "That's the one thing I take pride in as a batsman, as a cricketer," he said.
The West Indies lost their first Super Eight match against defending champions England and needed to win by a large margin against the United States to remain in contention for the semi-finals.
When asked if they had made any calculations for the chase, Hope replied: "Not at all. We didn't want to get too ahead of ourselves because sometimes that can play on the negative side."
"So yes, we understood the importance of finishing the game quickly, but we didn't want to get too ahead of ourselves. The goal was to play the powerplay as normal as possible, save the bad balls, put the guys under pressure at the beginning of the over, things like that, and then we evaluated after the power play and then decided that we wanted to finish at a certain stage," he added.
With two points from as many games, the Windies and England are in second and third place respectively and are very much alive in the tournament.
The West Indies will take on table-topping South Africa at North Sound in Antigua on Monday, June 24, while England will play bottom-placed United States in Bridgetown on Sunday.
