Flamboyant West Indies southpaw Shimron Hetmyer rings the ball of Indian Premier League franchise owners door with a brilliant century against India in the first ODI at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Hetmyer scored his fifth ODI century in just 85 balls to put West Indies on top in a 288-run chase against the hosts.
The powerful southpaw slammed the Indian bowlers all over the park and hit 11 fours and seven sixes to reach his highest ODI score of 139.
Chasing the target of 288, Windies lose opener Sunil Ambris early for 9 as Deepak Chahar plumbed the right-hander in the fifth over of the innings. After that, Hetmyer struck 100 runs plus stand with Shai Hope to settle the innings. Hetmyer took heavy charge over Indian spinners - Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja during his magnificent knock.
Hetmyer (38) also became the first West Indies' batsman to score five centuries in fewest innings. Earlier, Hope held the record with five tons in 46 innings.
Few days before IPL 2020 auction, Hetmyer's innings will surely grab the eyeballs of the franchise owner. Last season, Hetmyer made his IPL debut for Royal Challengers Banglaore, when the Virat Kohli-led team bought him for hefty 4.5 crore. The southpaw didn't live up to expectations of the team as he managed to score just 90 runs in five innings. RCB decided to release him after the awful season.
Hetmyer was also in good touch during three-match T20I series against where he scored 56, 23 and 41 runs to make his case solid for IPL.
Earlier, Windies skipper Kieron Pollard won the toss and elected to Rishabh Pant struck his maiden half-century at M S Dhoni's spiritual home to silence his critics as India shrugged off a poor start to post a challenging 287 for eight in the first ODI against West Indies on Sunday.
Shreyas Iyer (70 off 88), who is emerging as a solid number four, and Pant (71 off 69) paired up for a 114-run stand for the fourth wicket after India lost opener KL Rahul (6) and skipper Virat Kohli (4) in the seventh over of the innings. It was Iyer's third consecutive half-century.
