India vs West Indies 4th T20I: Hope Century Forces A Decider

West Indies levelled the series in Hyderabad. They won the India vs West Indies 4th T20I by 24 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday. Shai Hope made 102 not out. Keemo Paul took five wickets. India, set 248, were bowled out for 223, and the five-match series is tied at 2-2.

Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to field. Hope and Sherfane Rutherford made that look like the wrong call inside an hour. The decider is in Bengaluru on Saturday.

Hope and Rutherford build 247

Hope faced 50 balls for his hundred. He hit nine sixes and four fours. Shimron Hetmyer arrived and made 33 from 12 deliveries, which turned a good total into a difficult one. Rutherford finished unbeaten on 49 from 26, and West Indies closed on 247 for three.

Hope has now passed 2,000 runs in T20 internationals. He is the fourth West Indies batter to reach that mark. He is also the captain, which matters here, because the innings was built rather than slogged.

• West Indies 247 for 3 in 20 overs
• India 223 all out, chasing 248
• Shai Hope 102 not out off 50 balls, nine sixes and four fours
• Shimron Hetmyer 33 off 12 balls
• Sherfane Rutherford 49 not out off 26 balls
• Keemo Paul 5 for 41
• Sanju Samson 56 off 23 balls

Paul's five wickets break the chase

India started as though 248 was reachable. Sanju Samson hit 56 from 23 balls with six fours and four sixes. Paul removed him. The innings never found that rhythm again.

Tilak Varma made 43 from 25 and Nitish Kumar Reddy 41 from 20, but both innings ran alongside a climbing required rate rather than ahead of it. Shreyas Iyer fell for 16. Paul finished with 5 for 41, the difference between a chase that stayed alive and one that ended two balls early.

Arshdeep Singh was struck on the shoulder in the final over and could not continue. India have a fitness question to answer before Saturday.

Hope past Gayle in the record books

Hope is the first West Indies batter with three T20I centuries. Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis have two each. All three of Hope's hundreds are unbeaten scores of 102, and the previous one came at Ranchi earlier on this tour.

His 16 scores of fifty or more in T20Is equal Gayle's West Indies record. Three of them have come in this series. Gulf News reports that he is the first captain to make three fifty-plus scores in an away bilateral T20I series involving Test nations.

Bengaluru decides it

Four matches have produced one clear pattern. India have batted well enough and bowled badly at the death twice. Conceding 247 at home is not a tactical detail, it is the whole result, and 223 from a chase of 248 says the batting came close.

The fifth T20I is at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on 17 October. West Indies arrive with a captain in the best form of his T20I career and a seamer who has just taken five in an innings. India arrive needing a death-overs plan and, possibly, a replacement for Arshdeep.