If you remember the pre-smartphone era, you probably remember Snake. The first time you tried level 9, the fastest setting, you didn't last long. But once you got used to it, everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
On Wednesday, in the fourth T20I in Hyderabad, Shai Hope scored 102 not out off 50 balls with the control of a seasoned Snake player. That it helped West Indies level the five-match series 2-2 was a fitting reward.
A day before the match, West Indies head coach Daren Sammy had been asked whether his team was over-reliant on Hope. Until then, West Indies had won two games on the tour; on both occasions, Hope had scored a hundred and bagged the Player-of-the-Match award.
Sammy was quick to remind everyone of contributions from other players such as Amir Jangoo, Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd. But he also said: "Shai is in a good vein of form, and I want him to abuse that form as long as possible."
Hope did exactly that.
The question to Sammy was based on what had happened in the third T20I in Indore. With West Indies chasing 224, Hope fell for 5, with Arshdeep Singh bowling him from around the wicket. West Indies could manage only 54 for 1 in the powerplay and that proved decisive in the end.
On Wednesday, India captain Shreyas Iyer put West Indies in after winning the toss. The Hyderabad pitch has long been a batting paradise. The last time a T20I was played here, India posted a gargantuan 297 for 6 against Bangladesh. However, the square had been relaid, so neither team was sure how the surface would behave. Varun Aaron, Sunrisers Hyderabad's bowling coach in the IPL and a commentator on the broadcast of this series, even suggested that 160 to 180 could be a good total.
After Mayank Yadav conceded just three runs in the opening over, it looked like the pitch had indeed changed character. That illusion, though, did not last long. In the next five overs, West Indies hit five sixes, with Hope leading the way with three and taking the side to 79 for 1.
It was not like India did not have a plan against him. Arshdeep once again started from around the wicket. But he could bowl only one delivery at Hope before Jewel Andrew hit him for two fours and a six, forcing Iyer to take the seamer off.
Hope's method was simple: clear the front leg and aim down the ground or towards midwicket. And it didn't look like he broke a sweat while doing it. Even after the field restrictions eased, he kept cruising.
He took 28 balls to reach his fifty and only 22 more to get to his hundred. Later, he revealed that the pitch was not quite as flat as it might have seemed from the outside.
"It was a bit two-paced to start with," he said. "And then with the spinners and the grippers in the back end, it was a little bit difficult to hit through the line."
But it didn't seem to matter for Hope, who ended up with a control percentage of 92. The only bowler against whom he had a strike rate below 190 was Arshdeep; Hope scored three off five balls from him.
This was his third T20I hundred, the most by a West Indies batter in the format. He hit nine sixes in the innings, equalling the personal best he had set in the second T20I in Ranchi.
During the innings, Hope also reached 2000 T20I runs, becoming only the fourth West Indies batter after Rovman Powell, Nicholas Pooran and Brandon King to get there. That he has the best average of the four is no surprise, but he has the best strike rate as well. It shows how much his hitting has improved in the last few years.
Hope's knock took West Indies to 247 for 3, which was more than enough on a dew-free night.
Sanju Samson, who scored 65 off 23 balls in a losing cause, was full of praise for the West Indies captain. "We need to respect what he has been doing," Samson said after the match. "He has been playing some really good cricketing shots, not taking that much risk, and respecting the bowlers as well. So I think we need to give credit to him for the way he is batting."
Hope, meanwhile, was in a lighter mood. After collecting his third Player-of-the-Match award of the tour, he quipped: "To be honest, they are a bit heavy, and we have got to look at the luggage weight. I think we are going to have some problems going back home."
Given the heavy lifting he has been doing, a bit more weight should not be an issue.