With ten overs left in Ranchi on Friday night, West Indies needed 128 and Sherfane Rutherford was on 39. He then offered Mayank Yadav the simplest of chances off Kuldeep Yadav, and Mayank dropped it. Rutherford made 84. Shai Hope, his captain, finished on 102 not out off 45 balls, and West Indies reached 252 for 4 with nine balls to spare. They had been set 250.
That is the highest total West Indies have ever chased in a T20 international, the highest anyone has chased against India, and the second-highest successful chase in the format, behind South Africa’s 259 against West Indies at Centurion in 2023. The five-match series is level at 1-1.
Same pitch, two innings
Hope won his first toss of the tour and chose to bowl. India’s 249 for 5 was one run short of what would have been their eighth 250-plus total in T20Is. Sanju Samson made 82 off 41 after being dropped on 6, Ishan Kishan 43 off 22, and Tilak Varma finished the innings with three sixes in a row in a 23-run final over.
The table puts the two innings side by side at the scorecard’s checkpoints. India were ahead at every stage until the last one.
| Checkpoint | India (batting first) | West Indies (chasing 250) |
|---|---|---|
| After the powerplay (6 overs) | 79 for 1 | 72 for 3 |
| After 10 overs | 127 for 1 | 122 for 3 |
| After 14 overs | 161 for 3 | 178 for 4 (14.1 overs) |
| Finish | 249 for 5 (20 overs) | 252 for 4 (18.3 overs) |
| Top scorer | Sanju Samson 82 (41) | Shai Hope 102* (45) |
| Best bowling | Mayank Yadav 3-36 | Roston Chase 3-24 |
Source: Cricinfo full scorecard and match flow; India's 14-over score from the Cricinfo match report. West Indies' 14.1-over score is the fall of their fourth wicket.
Where India’s defence went
Mayank Yadav, bowling only hard lengths at high pace, took two wickets in the first over: Kamil Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer, both with the score on 5. He bowled Rovman Powell first ball of the sixth. At 58 for 3, Cricinfo’s forecaster gave West Indies a 6.08% chance of winning.
Hope and Rutherford then added 120, a West Indies record for the fourth wicket in men’s T20Is. Rutherford took 23 off one Axar Patel over. When Kuldeep finally had him caught behind by Samson, 72 were still needed off 35 balls. Hope and Romario Shepherd, 34 not out off 13, got them in 26. Hope sealed it with his eighth and ninth sixes in the 19th over.
India’s left-arm spinners, Axar and Kuldeep, went for 116 runs in 7.3 overs. India were without Jasprit Bumrah, and their last five overs included four of spin.
Ashwin’s point: Hope helped Samson first
Hope’s plan with the ball almost cost him. West Indies bowled seven overs of spin and two of part-time seam before their main fast bowlers came on, and Akeal Hosein’s three overs went for 46. R Ashwin, speaking on his YouTube channel, said Samson had looked scratchy and was “not in a run-scoring phase”, and that West Indies let him find it. Giving Hosein three straight powerplay overs to Samson “was like serving a hungry lion a goat on a platter,” Ashwin said, as reported by Sportskeeda.
He also credited Samson for continuing to take risks when, as Ashwin put it, players fearing the axe usually choose self-preservation. Samson reached 50 off 21 balls. The one bowler who held him and the others back was Roston Chase: four overs for 24 runs and three wickets, on a night when the match produced 501 runs.
The numbers from Ranchi
- 501 runs in 38.3 overs, the second-highest match aggregate in T20Is, behind 517 at Centurion in 2023.
- 204 runs in boundaries by West Indies, their most in a T20I. The two sides together scored 382 in fours and sixes.
- 20 sixes by West Indies, the second-most by any team against India in T20Is.
- Hope’s second T20I hundred. He is the only wicketkeeper-captain to score one, and he has two. It came six days after his 162 not out in the ODI in New Chandigarh.
- 184 runs by the two wicketkeepers, Samson and Hope, the first time two keepers have each scored 80 or more in the same T20I.
All figures are from Cricinfo’s stats analysis of the match.
What comes next
The chasing side has now won all five international matches on this tour, the three ODIs and both T20Is. India won the first T20I in Lucknow on 6 October by eight wickets, chasing 172, with Shreyas Iyer making 102 not out. The third match is in Indore tonight, Sunday 11 October, followed by Hyderabad on 14 October and Bengaluru on 17 October. On this evidence, the toss may matter as much as the selection.
Frequently asked
- Who won the 2nd T20I between India and West Indies in Ranchi?
- West Indies, by six wickets with nine balls left. They made 252 for 4 in 18.3 overs chasing India’s 249 for 5, on 9 October 2026. The five-match series is level at 1-1.
- How many did Shai Hope score in the Ranchi T20I?
- 102 not out off 45 balls, with six fours and nine sixes. It was his second T20I hundred and he was Player of the Match.
- Is 250 the highest T20I chase against India?
- Yes. According to Cricinfo it is the highest successful chase against India, West Indies’ highest successful chase, and the second-highest in all T20Is after South Africa’s 259 against West Indies in 2023.
