Ahmedabad, Feb 26 West Indies skipper Shai Hope has admitted that losing four wickets in the Power-play while batting first turned out to be a crucial moment in their staggering nine-wicket defeat to South Africa in the Super 8s clash in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
The West Indies posted 176/6 in 20 overs while batting first, with the help of a great comeback led by former captain Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd, but it was not enough as South Africa achieved the score in just 16.1 overs with the help of a brilliant knock by captain Aiden Markram.
"Very important to get a big score, and losing so many wickets in the Power-play cost us. We were 40-50 short. Must commend the guys in the bottom half for giving us a chance, never know things could have changed. This pitch was probably better for batting than Mumbai. The ball was coming on nicely; there wasn't any purchase there when we bowled, and you could play through the line," he said after the match.
Hope also feels that the execution of the bowlers was not right, which led to batters scoring the runs easily.
"I just think we need to ensure we play; it's just about execution. We have all the right people in our arsenal to make sure that we can play whatever conditions we're faced with. Again, you can have things in your favour as a bowling unit, but if you're not executing, then you're still going to give the batters your opportunities to score," he said.
With this loss, the next match against India will be a do-or-die encounter for the West Indies team. Hope said that the team will shift their focus to the next game, which would be like a quarter-final.
"Sometimes it's good to have a loss earlier in the campaign, but now we see the importance of this next game, and it's important for us to make sure we hit our shots well. And we've got to use it as a point as well, our first final and hopefully a few more after that," he concluded.
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