New Delhi: West Indies might have thrashed Ireland by 196 runs in an ODI on Sunday, but it was the opening duo of John Campbell and Shai Hope who stole the show with a 365-run partnership for the opening wicket. The duo managed to surpass the previous record opening partnership of 304 set by the Pakistan duo of Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman against Zimbabwe in 2018.
Interestingly, the Windies duo also surpassed the second-highest partnership of 331 that was set by Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid against New Zealand in an ODI in 1999. While Tendulkar and Dravid stand at third after this partnership on Sunday, the fourth place is held by Dravid and former India skipper Sourav Ganguly. The duo put on 318 during their 1999 World Cup encounter against Sri Lanka at Taunton.
The highest opening partnership in ODIs technically belonged to Indian batswomen Punam Raut and Deepti Sharma (320 against Ireland in 2017), but the Windies duo of Campbell and Hope also went past that at Clontarf. The duo fell five short of the record partnership across any wicket. That also belongs to the Windies as Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels had put on 372 against Zimbabwe for the second wicket in the 2015 World Cup at Canberra. It was also the first time that both the Windies openers had hit a century in the same game.
