West Indian batsmen Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer were involved in a comical run out during the India vs West Indes 1st T20I at Eden Gardens, Kolkata that triggered a collapse in the Windies batting line-up from which they never recovered.
Hope and Hetmyer, already guilty of being involved in a run out during the ODI series, had a terrible mix-up in the 4th over of the West Indian innings that saw the back of Hope for 14.
While both the batsmen were at fault, it was Hope who made the amusing decision of going for a single when the ball landed few inches away from KL Rahul, standing at mid-wicket. The non-striker Hetmyer was too late to respond and when he did, Hope had started to stutter. This added to the confusion and resulted in both the batsmen charging towards the same end.
The comical events do not end there. What should have been an easy run out after the Windies pair landed in the same end, took some great match awareness from Manish Pandey and a few anxious moments because KL Rahul, the fielder, had flicked the ball above keeper Dinesh Karthik’s head and away from his reach.
If it wasn’t for Pandey, who kept an eye on the ball and ran in from Point to dislodge the bails in time, it might have provided an opportunity to Hope to get back to his crease.
The wicket initiated a collapse and Windies could only manage 109 for 8 in their 20 overs. Kuldeep Yadav was again the star with the ball for India, picking up 3 wickets for 13 runs.