Kolkata, on Sunday, 03 April, 2016, 06:05 PM
Seeing through it all was Marlon Samuels, who had guided them through the innings with an unbeaten 88. But England fought hard against tough conditions to stay in the game until the very last over. They had done extremely well in defending 155 under humid conditions, but the finish was marked with heated moments after Ben Stokes conceded four sixes in a row against West Indies' newest hero, Carlos Brathwaite.
Marlon Samuels kept West Indies in the game for most part of the innings and, just like in 2014, ensured that he played a leading role in the final. England battled hard amidst trying conditions and bowled yorkers despite striving to keep their palms dry off the sweat. 155 wasn't a massive chase but West Indies kept waiting and waiting for that one big over to change things around. It boiled down to 27 needed off the last two overs. You couldn't ask for a closer finish in the final.
Both teams went in unchanged for the big final with Darren Sammy winning a crucial toss. It was his sixth such win in the tournament, and similar to West Indies's last five games, he opted to chase. Both captains were unanimous in agreement that chasing was the best way to go at the Eden Gardens. This, despite the fact that two out of the three games played here so far in the tournament were won by teams batting first.
The pitch used for the final was different in colour to the ones used previously. Just earlier in the day, the West Indies women's team had chased down a competitive score of 148 against Australia women. The pitch had a covering of grass that caught Eoin Morgan's eye prior to the match as well.
Jason Roy was out for a duck off just the second ball of the innings, playing outside the line to a standard Samuel Badree skidder. If that was a mistake by the batsman, the second wicket came about more through luck for West Indies. Alex Hales whipped one off his thigh from Andre Russell and found short fine leg. Normally, that would have cleared that lone man and made its way to the boundary. But how it comes matters little, the scoreboard read England 9/2 after three overs. The powerplay was going waste.
Fourteen runs came off the first over by Suleimann Benn, the fourth of the innings, with Joe Root smashing two fours and Eoin Morgan one. But Badree kept pulling England back. That over was followed by a maiden that included a wicket. Morgan paid the price for expecting Badree's leggies to turn and edged an away-going delivery to slip. England were just 33/3 at the end of the powerplay.
The resurrection came through a 61-run stand between Jos Buttler and Root for the 4th wicket. The fifty of the innings came only in the 9th over but Buttler was the one to trigger a move ahead with Root holding one end up with a typically brisk knock. Buttler went after Benn, who conceded 40 in his three overs, before falling to Brathwaite but his cameo had injected the momentum in England's innings. The 100 came up in just the 13th over now with Root getting his fifty off 33 balls as well.
It just wasn't to be one-way traffic today though. So, soon after England's 100, with the crowd waving, Dwayne Bravo came in to bag two in three - Ben Stokes failing to guage the pace off the pitch and spooning a catch to point and Moeen Ali caught down the legside. It turned worse for England in the next over when Root paddled Brathwaite to short-fine leg.
Suddenly, England were in danger of being bowled out but they bat deep and the tail managed to drag them past 150 towards the end despite some good death bowling by Brathwaite and Russell. It was not an ungettable score, but at the halfway stage it just seemed that England might have finished a few short.
It was, however, a slippery score, and West Indies would have known that as well.
Liam Plunkett had Samuels caught behind on 20, well almost. Samuels had almost reached the dressing room when the umpires where checking for a clean catch but the ball had hit grass even as Buttler was getting his gloves over it. And so Samuels returned to continue the resurrection with a circumspect Dwayne Bravo.
The duo managed to stem the wicket-flow with watchful batting but in doing so, they consumed many dot balls, particularly Bravo who was settling in. At the halfway mark, West Indies were 54/3, needing more than 10 an over for the rest of the night. They had the firepower to do so, no doubt, but could they do it without facing bad bowling?
Bravo had 10 dot balls in his 27. And discounting the numerous chances for singles to be twos, what West Indies were doing were waiting for the magical flourish. They had it against India and today as they proved, they had it in them to do it once again.
Every now and then Samuels would get that big over as well, like when Plunkett was struck for 15 in the fifteenth over but when two of their biggest bets for the big hits - Sammy and Russell - falling in the same over bowled by the frugal David Willey, West Indies slipped back into pressure. Willey rubbed it in by doing the champion dance right in front of Sammy, as well. But still, there was always the sense that this wasn't going to end so easily.
And England, particularly Stokes wouldn't have quite imagined conceding 19 off the final over. But Brathwaite's and West Indies's cool confidence in executing the big hits signalled just how much they trusted themselves to end as champions tonight.
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