West Indies emerged champions of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2016 as they overpowered England by six wickets in a thrilling edge-of-the-seat final. The marquee event was played out at Eden Gardens in Kolkata in April.
Darren Sammy led the Caribbean side while Eoin Morgan skippered England. This was Sammy’s second title as a captain, having previously led the nation to a victory in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 as well.
Put to bat first, England scored a competitive 155/9 in their allotted 20 overs with Joe Root scoring a 36-ball 54 and later boosted by David Willey’s 21-run cameo to take the score past 150. Jos Buttler also contributed with a timely 21-ball 36 in the middle-order.
West Indies did not have the best of starts in the all-important contest and were soon reduced to 11/3 in their chase before Marlon Samuels steadied the ship with a 75-run fourth-wicket partnership with Dwayne Bravo who contributed 25. Samuels finished with an unbeaten 66-ball 85, a knock studded with nine fours and two sixes which is also the highest score in a T20 World Cup final.
With England bowlers doing a fine job of controlling the middle and the death overs, it all boiled down to West Indies needing 19 runs to win from the final over.
Carlos Brathwaite launched four consecutive sixes off Ben Stokes to seal an improbable victory from the jaws of defeat to give West Indies their second World T20 title.
Interestingly, West Indies entered the 2016 World T20 on the back of a T20I series in Sri Lanka that was drawn 1-1.
However, West Indies had a successful World T20 campaign with their only loss coming against Afghanistan in the league stage. They went on to defeat hosts India by seven wickets in the semi-final at Mumbai before going on to lift the title at Kolkata.
Records from ICC T20 World Cup 2016
West Indies are the first team to lift two T20 World Cup titles (2012 and 2016).
Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal topped the run charts with 295 runs, while Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi was the highest wicket-taker with 12 wickets.
India’s Virat Kohli was named the Player of the Tournament.
West Indies’ Marlon Samuels registered the highest score (85*) in the history of a T20 World Cup final.
West Indies became the first and only team to win both the men's and women's World Twenty20 titles on the same day. West Indies defeated Australia women by eight wickets.
Featured photo : Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP
