West Indies produced the finest batting display in their one-day history on Wednesday, posting 405-7 from their 50 overs against India in the second ODI in Guwahati.
The total beats their previous best of 389, made against England at St George’s in 2019, and stands as a marker for a side that has spent much of the year fighting for relevance in the format.
Three centuries carried the innings.
John Campbell made 101, Shai Hope followed with 104, and Amir Jangoo added an unbeaten 114.
It is only the sixth time in ODI history that three batters from the same team have reached three figures in a single innings, a list that now includes this West Indies top order alongside some of the format’s most celebrated line-ups.
The scale of the performance matters beyond the scoreboard. West Indies players recently accepted a mandatory pay cut as their board pushed through cost-saving measures, a decision that had raised fresh questions about morale and depth in the squad.
A total of 405-7 in Guwahati offers a firm response, arriving in the same year as full T20I status decisions reshaped parts of the international calendar and put extra scrutiny on how smaller boards fund their players.
That financial backdrop had followed the squad for months, and there were legitimate questions about whether a team asked to accept less could still perform at its peak.
The answer arrived in the most emphatic way possible, with a batting order that looked unaffected by any of the uncertainty around it.
As detailed in the full BBC Sport report, this was a batting effort that left India’s attack with nowhere to hide across the full 50 overs.
Campbell and Hope Set the Platform in Blistering Opening Half
John Campbell set the tone from the start, targeting India’s seamers with intent rather than waiting for the innings to develop.
His century included five sixes, several of them cleared with minimal backlift, and he singled out Prasidh Krishna for the harshest treatment, taking 22 runs from one over alone.
That over broke India’s early rhythm. It forced India’s captain and coaching staff to rethink their new-ball plans on the run. Campbell’s 101 came at a strike rate that put India’s bowlers under pressure from the first ten overs, and it meant West Indies never had to rebuild after an early setback.
Shai Hope, playing the calmer partner, allowed Campbell to take the early risks while working the gaps and rotating strike. The pair added 110 runs for the second wicket from just 79 balls, a stand that turned a promising start into a platform for something much bigger.
Hope’s own hundred, his 104, was built on the sort of patient accumulation that has defined much of his career at this level. He picked the boundary balls carefully rather than forcing the pace, and that discipline meant he was still in place when West Indies moved into the most destructive phase of their innings.
Between them, Campbell and Hope had given West Indies the perfect base. India’s bowlers had no answer to the pace of scoring, and every option they tried in that opening half was met with a positive response from the middle.
Jangoo Completes Trio of Tons as Indian Bowling Falters
With the platform set, Amir Jangoo joined Hope and the innings accelerated further. The pair put on 182 for the third wicket, a stand that took West Indies from a strong position to a genuinely historic one and pushed the total well beyond anything the side had managed before.
Jangoo’s unbeaten 114 completed the set of three centuries, and it came against an Indian attack that was running low on answers by the closing overs.
His innings mixed clean hitting through the off side with the ability to find boundaries even as fielders were pushed back to the rope.
India’s bowling problems went beyond the runs conceded.
Prasidh Krishna and Naman Dhir both picked up injuries during the innings, leaving the attack short-handed at the moment West Indies were at their most ruthless.
Auqib Nabi, handed his ODI debut, took the brunt of the punishment and finished with 84 runs conceded, a harsh introduction to international cricket against a rampant top order.
By the time West Indies closed on 405-7, they had rewritten their own record book and left India with a huge target to chase in the second half of the match.
The result also gives the tourists real momentum heading into the rest of this West Indies vs India ODI series, after a difficult run in recent West Indies white-ball fixtures.
For a team that had heard more questions about its finances than its batting in recent months, the response in Guwahati could hardly have been louder. Three centurions and a record total sent a clear message about the depth still available within this squad.
