T20 World Cup: Brathwaite powers West Indies to title

England were cruelly denied a second T20 World Cup title as Carlos Brathwaite struck four successive sixes in the final over to guide the West Indies to a dramatic four-wicket victory in Kolkata. The 27-year-old crashed Ben Stokes over the boundary in a sensational climax to clinch the win at Eden Gardens as Darren Sammy’s team prevailed with two balls to spare.

The winners from 2010 had for so long looked like claiming a second title of their own despite making just 155 for 9 from a disjointed innings. Joe Root top scored with 54 but a constant flow of wickets, with Brathwaite and Dwayne Bravo taking three apiece to keep Eoin Morgan’s side to a sub-par total.

“Firstly I want to thank the almighty,” Sammy said at the post-match presentation. “We have a pastor in the team in Andre Fletcher, we keep on praying. Really happy for this win, it’s something we’ll cherish for a long time.

“We have a few matchwinners, nobody give us a chance, every game somebody stepped up – good to see Carlos play like that in his debut World Cup. Shows the T20 depth we have in the Caribbean, hopefully we will continue to improve.

“People were wondering we would plays this tournament, we had issues with the board, Mark Nicholas called us players with no brain. But all of us came together, these 15 men put adversity aside, play this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans. It was tremendous.

“I want to thank the coaching team, Phil Simmons. We had a new manager in this tournament. Got to give credit to the entire team here. This is for all the fans in the Caribbean. I don’t know when I’m going to be playing for West Indies again, I want to thank my team, thanks my coaching staff.”

England captain Eoin Morgan added: “We were certainly in the game, put ourselves in a position to win the game. We didn’t have enough runs on the board, it was a really good batting surface, maybe 180-90 was part.

“He’s a fantastic bowler, he got two early wicket, the rebuilding allowed us to put something on the board and the bowlers got us close. We showed an immense amount of character in the tournament, not quite done enough to win it. I truly believe this is only the start of something special. It’s not his fault, we’re all in this together, we enjoy our wins – and the pain will be shared tonight.”