
Carlos Ricardo Brathwaite, the 27-year-old Barbados and West Indies allrounder, wrote himself into West Indies history books by smashing four consecutive sixes that carried the Windies to a four-wicket victory over England in the final of the World Twenty20 tournament last Sunday at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Brathwaite’s incredible allround performance also allowed the Caribbean side to become the first to win the World Twenty20 tournament twice. The first was in 2012 when they defeated Sri Lanka.
He was undefeated on 34 from just 10 deliveries and also took three for 23 from his four overs but Marlon Samuels, the hard-hitting Jamaican middle-order batsman who was adjudged Man of the Match, was the architect of the victory as he scored a brilliant 85 not out which included nine fours and two sixes from 66 balls. He also shared in two crucial partnerships, the first with Dwayne Bravo (75) and then Brathwaite (54), to pull West Indies out of trouble after they were at one stage 11 runs for three wickets in the third over.
Openers Johnson Charles went for one, Chris Gayle for four and then Lendi Simmons was out first ball without scoring.
England sent in to bat was restricted to 155 for nine wickets off their 20 overs with Joe Root topscoring with 54 and wicketkeeper Jos Buttler chipped in with 36. Bravo took three for 37, Brathwaite three for 23 and Samuel Badree two for 16.
West Indies in reply scored 161 for six wickets in 19.4 overs with Marlon Samuels topscoring 85 not out.
Bravo made 25 and Brathwaite was undefeated on 34 which included one four and four sixes. The four sixes came from the last over as the Windies needed 19 runs to win but the Bajan rookie who has played only eight T20 internationals since his debut against Bangladesh at Dhaka in October 2011 slammed England allrounder Ben Stokes for four sixes off his first four deliveries to give Windies an astonishing victory.
England’s pacer David Willey took three for 20 and partime bowler Root took two for nine from just one over.
India’s Test captain Virat Kohli was awarded Man of the Series after scoring 273 runs in the tournament, his highest 89 not out at an incredible average of 136.50.