West Indies vs. England: Winners and Losers from World T20 Final
West Indies claimed their second World T20 title with a thrilling four-wicket win over England in Kolkata on Sunday night. It had everything you wanted to see in a final: batting collapses, brilliant yorkers, nervous overs and cool innings from some of the coolest players in the world.
In the end, it was the West Indies who came out on top after the women had also won the women's edition of the competition. It was quite a match, and we've picked the World T20 final winners and losers. Add yours in the comments.
Winner: West Indies Bowling
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Barring Sulieman Benn and Darren Sammy, the West Indies bowlers were exceptional. They quickly realised that exploiting the track's slowness would be the way to go and executed those slower balls perfectly. From Samuel Badree's sliders to Dwayne Bravo's slower ball-bouncers, the bowlers did everything right to ensure England were constantly in a phase of needing to rebuild.
Winner: Joe Root
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Not only did Joe Root top-score for England, hitting 54 off 36, but he also chipped in with a wicket. He may not be what is traditionally considered a "big hitter," but he sure knows how to pile on the runs. Root has hit just 14 sixes in 20 T20Is, but he still manages to keep his strike rate right up there at 138.78.
Loser: All the Windies Big-Name Batsmen, Except Marlon Samuels
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Cometh the hour, cometh the big-name players, right? Well, not so for the West Indies on Sunday night. Despite having been in good touch throughout the tournament, the Windies big-name players flopped miserably on Sunday night.
Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell and Darren Sammy all disappointed with the bat. Bravo was the only one who managed to get into double figures, but even his 25 off 27 ended abruptly as he tried to go for glory and ended up caught out instead. Samuels' unbeaten 85 off 66 proved to be pivotal in the win, so the rest of the batting line-up will get away with it.
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Winner: Chris Jordan
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Chris Jordan bowled an exceptional penultimate over, executing the yorker with perfection. After conceding a four off the first ball, he pulled things back and conceded just another four, meaning the Windies needed 19 runs off the final ball. There were a few question marks over his ability before the tournament, and that should have quelled some of those concerns.
Winner: Darren Sammy the Captain
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At the post-match press conference, Darren Sammy did not mince his words to say how he felt about the West Indies Cricket Board. He told Nasser Hussain that the lead-up to the tournament had been a real struggle.
"We felt disrespected by our board. ... To play this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans is just tremendous. ... We had a new manager in Rawle Lewis, who has never managed a team before. ... The trouble he went through to just get us in this uniform. ... It was us in our own little circle and we dedicate this win to all fans in Caribbean," said Sammy.
To see a professional sportsman not mince his words and speak without fear like that was really refreshing.
Loser: Sulieman Benn
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Sulieman Benn just couldn't get things right on Sunday night. He conceded 40 runs off his three overs—a far cry from the one for 23 he took when the two teams last met on a batsman-friendly wicket. On a slower pitch, Benn will be disappointed with his performance, and had Carlos Brathwaite not dealt with the final over quite some spectacularly, those runs conceded by Benn could very well have been the difference between the two sides.
Loser: Pressure
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The West Indies needed 19 off the final over, and Carlos Brathwaite did an exceptional job to hit four sixes in the final over. Ben Stokes probably missed two of those four balls, getting them just beyond yorker length, but Brathwaite picked the other two up and dispatched them as cool as you like. But it was the first ball Stokes got wrong as the pressure mounted that gave Brathwaite the confidence to hammer him all around the ground and lead his side to the World T20 title for the second time.
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