West Indies crowned first double ICC World Twenty20 champs

Mangalore Today News Network

Apr 04, 2016: It was suspense pure when 19 needed off the last over balls. Ben Stokes to Carlos Brathwaite. First ball - flick, six. Second ball - smacked over long-on, six. Third ball - bang over long-off, six. Fourth ball - muscled over long-on again, six. West Indies win with two balls to spare. England have hands on their hips. West Indies are the first double ICC World Twenty20 champions.

 

In a pure dramatic finish to a T20 match, it happened at the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 final where England did the ’Champion’ dance a bit too early, thinking their 155 will, in the end, prove enough to win the title.

Samuels made the most of his two lives at 27 and 55, to keep one end intact with his 85 off 66 balls; however, it was Brathwaite who turned his skipper Darren Sammy’s words prophetic that "West Indies are a boundary-hitting team". And did it in that very fashion.

That made it three big titles in the year so far for the Caribbean team. First their Under-19 boys lifted the World Cup, then this day on Sunday - which started with a title win for the women, only to matched in style by the men.
"David", as Sammy said the day before, "always wins with one sling shot". They did it in four the following day, but no soul in the Caribbean islands would mind.  The England innings swung like a pendulum attached to Root and almost fell over once he left at the end of a four-ball madness, which saw them slip from 110 for 4 to 111 for 7.

The English team had to thank Root’s 36-ball 54 and his 61-run partnership with Buttler (36 in 22) after Michael Vaughn joked on Twitter: "Can we start all over again?" seeing his team tottering at 23 for 3 put in to bat.

Sammy didn’t think twice before telling Eoin Morgan that he will field as the West Indies have banked on their boundary-hitting prowess to chase targets throughout the tournament.

Samuel Badree and Russell removed openers Jason Roy, for a first-ball duck, and Alex Hales (1), respectively, before the end of second over. Morgan’s bad patch then extended to the game where he would have wanted it to end.

Badree pressed the eject button on England skipper, getting him out caught in the slips by Gayle for 5. The No. 1 T20I bowler delivered a superb spell of 2 for 16.

Root and Buttler took the score to 84 when Carlos Brathwaite began a spell he would want to remember. Buttler was caught in the deep by Bravo, triggering the customary dance moves from the team’s former skipper.

Stokes and Root looked to have settled into a nice partnership by the end of 13th over having raised England’s 100 in 12.1 over and reaching 103 for 4. But then between 13.3 and 14.1 overs, the English team lost Stokes (13), Moeen Ali for a duck and the big wicket of Root.

Bravo was the architect of that collapse sending Stokes and Ali back into the hut in the same over, followed by Brathwaite taking the biggest wicket for the West Indies in the form of Root off the first ball of the next over.

Had it not been for David Willey’s two sixes and a four in his 21 off 14 balls, England would have found it tough to cross 150. Brathwaite (3 for 23) then removed him and Bravo (3 for 37) got rid of Liam Plunkett (4).

But Jordan (12*) and Rashid (4*) batted out the last 9 balls to ensure England use their complete quota of 20 overs to post 155 for 9.