Its time to discuss about the T20 giants of cricket, its "WEST INDIES". There are teams like England, India and Australia who considered as the best cricketing nations all over the world. But, when it comes to T20, one team can give them nightmare is "WEST INDIES". The reason is very clear cut, with the likes of Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, DJ Bravo, L Simmons, Darren Sammy, K Pollard, M Samuels, S Badree and S Narine, one can never keep out of the game. They won the ICC T20 World Cup in 2012. Almost the same bunch of players traveled to India for the ICC T20 World Cup 2016. Lets see what happened in 2016.
Journey of T20 World Cup 2016
West Indies won their maiden title in 2012, all thanks to their big match player Marlon Samuels. West Indies defended 137 runs against Sri Lanka in the final. But baring final, all other players stood up to the occasion and helped their team to reach the final of ICC T20 World Cup 2012. ICC T20 World Cup 2012 played in Sri Lanka and ICC T20 World Cup 2016 played in another aisan country, India. So, Is West Indies eyeing another T20 World Cup triumph in asian country. Lets see their journey in ICC T20 World Cup 2016.
1st match vs West Indies at Wankhede
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| England were slammed by Chris Gayle in their opening match at Wankhede. Image Source - Google | Image by - itv |
West Indies won the toss and opted to chase as Wankhede is well known as a chasing ground. Jason Roy(15) and Alex Hales(28) gave them a decent start. England were 49/1 in their first 6 overs. Although middle order batsman scored at good strike rate to kept the scorecard going in the all important opening match as winning start is always going to play crucial role in such big tournaments. Joe Root (48 runs off 36 balls), Jos Buttler(30 runs off 20 balls) and Skipper Eoin Morgan(27* runs off 14 balls) gave important contribution and England set a target of 183. Is this total safe against power packed batting of West Indies and Wankhede batting track? England’s David Willey gave them perfect start and got the better of J Charles. This was the last time England players got some joy in the 2nd inning. They were badly tore away by Gayle storm. The big left handed batsman hit England bowlers all around at Wankhede. The Man of the Match, The Universe Boss scored unbeaten 100 runs off 48 balls with 11 towering sixes and with that West Indies started their ICC World Cup 2016 campaign with moral boosting win.
2nd match vs Sri Lanka at Bangalore
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| A Fletcher scored unbeaten 84 runs off 64 balls to hel West Indies beat Sri Lanka at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengalore Image Source - Google | Image by - |
West Indies won the toss and elected to bowl. Sri Lankan
openers looked scratchy and in the process of surviving, they lost their
openers TM Dilshan(12) and Dinesh Chandimal(16) in the powerplay. Sri Lanka
score 41 runs in the powerplay. Their fortunes didn’t changed after powerplay
as they lost 3 more batsman before the 10th over. S Badree took all
these wickets to left Sri Lanka with 47/5 in the 9 th over. Skipper Angelo
Mathews 20(32) and all rounder T Perera 40(29) took some Sri Lanka to a decent
score of 122/9. S Badree (3/12), S Benn(0/13) and D Bravo(2/20) didn’t allowed
Sri Lankan batsman to free their arm. West Indies started their chase by
scoring 13 runs off A Mathews over. Its time for the pitch to play his role.
Slowness of the pitch and some discipline bowling by Sri Lankan spinners didn’t
allowed West Indies to score freely.
Opener J Charles 10(13), M Samuels 3(12) and Dinesh Ramdin 5(13)
struggled to get going. But they knew the target was modest and all they need
to just stay at the crease. Man of the Match, A Fletcher 84*(64) and A Russell
20*(8) finished the game for West Indies and they are now just one win away from sealing Semi FInal spot.
3rd match vs South Africa at Nagpur
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| West Indies make it 3 out of 3 to seal Semi Final birth. Image Source - Google | Image by - PTI |
West Indies luck with the toss continued and they again won
the toss and they again opted to field. South Africa off to a horror start,
poor judgment and miscommunication between Q de Kock and Hashim Amla cost them
the wicket of Hashim Amla. Problems for South Africa increased when reliable F
du Plessis( 9) and Rossouw (0) followed
Amla and left South Africa at 20/3 in 3 overs. AB de Villiers joied de Kock but
Bravo brought his Champion dance after he bowls dangerous De Villiers (10) out
by the slower one. David Miller(1) fall in the next over to C Gayle. Q de Kock
(47) along with lower order batsman, D Wiese (28) and C Morris (16) stretched
South Africa total to 122/8. Rabada gave South Africa early hope by getting C
Gayle by unplayable delivery. Fletcher (11) followed Gayle. M Samuels joined J
Charles and played sensible cricket. When it looked like they are taking the
match away from South Africa, David Wiese struck back to get rid of Charles
(32). DJ Bravo followed him in the next over.
West Indies were 87/4 at the end of 14 over. They needed 36 runs of 36
balls to book a place in the semis.
Twist came in the 17th over when Imran Tahir got rid of Andre
Russell and skipper Darren Sammy off the consecutive balls to give South Africa
some hope to stay in the tournament. M Samuels got out in the 19th
over. Rabada to defend 9 runs off the last over but C Brathwaite slammed 6 off
the 2nd ball and almost finishedthe game there only. As a result of
it, West Indies won the match comfortably with 2 balls to spare and booked
their seat for the semi final.
4th match vs Afghanistan at Nagpur
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| Afghanistan players doing Champion dance after beating Champion side in their last match of ICC T20 World Cup 2016. Image Source - Google | Image by - Agence France-Persse |
West Indies won the toss and elected to bowl for the 4th
time in a row. And their inform bowlers didn’t disappointed their skipper
decision. Golden arm S Badree struck twice in the powerplay and left
Afghanistan trailing at 33/2 in 6 overs. It looked like another low scoring
contest was on the cards. Afghanistan lost wickets at regular interval and
their batsman never got going in front of West Indies bowlers. Apart from
Najibullah Zadran, who scored 48*(40), none other batsman stepped up and showed
some character. As a result of this, Afghanistan scored 123/7 in 20 overs. West
Indies batsman came to batting with full of confidence but didn’t got good
start. Debutant E Lewis got out for duck and from there only their batsman got
under pressure. Like Afghanistan, they didn’t got any partnership. J Charles
(22), Dinesh Ramdin (18) and DJ Bravo (28) got some start but didn’t capitalize
onto that. Equation brought down to 25 runs off 12 balls. C Brathwaite smashed
2 sixes off the penultimate over. Total 15 runs scored in 19th over
to left with10 runs off final over. Their senior most, Md Nabi to defend 10
runs. He didn’t conceded any run on first 2 balls, on the 3rd one,
Brathwaite lofted the ball high into the sky but Najibullah Zadran took a
screamer and its all Afghanistan match to loose after that. 9 runs off 3 balls,
its never easy when your number 9 is on strike. West Indies fall short by 6 runs
and Afghanistan somehow managed to upset the World Champions. Najibullah Zadran
for his 48*(40) and the match winning catch to dismissed C Brathwaite, was
adjusted Man of the Match.
Semi-Final vs India at Wankhede
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| Andree Russell celebrates after hitting the winning six off Virat Kohli to advance his team to Final. Image Source - Google | Image by - Tim Wigmore |
Its India vs WI semi-final. On the paper, West Indies never disappoints their fans with some big power hitters in their rank. But host India was not far behind and with form Virat Kohli was there, no one could stop India to reach final.West Indies won the toss in the pressure game and send India to bat. India,unlike other games, got off to a good start. Rohit Sharma(43) and A Rahane(40) gave India the perfect platform to explore in the final overs. India reached 100 in 12.2 overs. Again its one man for India, Virat Kohli took charge and smashed West Indies bowler on the batting pitch of Wankhede. Kohli goes onto scored 89* off 47 balls to get India to a big total 192. But is there is any total called as "Big" against the likes of Gayle, Russell, Bravo and other hitters.Jasprit Bumrah knocked dangerous Chris Gayle(5) in his very first deliveries and Ashish Nehra removed big-match player Marlon Samuels(8) in the next over to leave West Indies struggling at 19/2 in 3 overs. Then the moment arrived. Both Charles 52(36) and Simmons 82*(51) got West Indies steady and not only kept wickets but also hammered Indian bowlers all around in Wankhede. Virat Kohli came to bowl and removed Charles straightaway. But Mr. Russell, the deadly hitters arrived. He was ruthless and scored 43*(20) including 4 towering 6's and won the match for West Indies by hitting a high 6 off Virat Kohli. The story would be different if Ashwin and Pandya didn't oversteps. Their no-balls gave two life line to Simmons. The lucky Simmons was adjusted Man of the Match. So, after this cracking match, ICC T20 World Cup 2016 now have their 2 finalist , England and West Indies.
Final vs England at Eden Garden, Kolkata
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| Super Hera Charlos Brathwaite celebrating after the 4th six off Ben Stokes to win the World Cup for West Indies. He hit 4 sixes in a row in the final over at Eden Gardens. Image Source - Google | Image by - Agence France-Presse |
Its a big final. Its England vs West Indies. West Indies won the toss in the final and opted to chase. High on confidence, England came out to bat but S Badree bowls Jason Roy out for a duck on the very second ball of the match. Alex Hales(1) followed Roy in the next over. When Skipper Morgan fall off badree at slip, England was all in trouble in the big final. They scored just 33 runs in the powerplay for the loss of 3 important wickets. Joe Root (54) and Jos Buttler (36) did counterattack and brought the match in balance. England were 84/3 in 11 overs and with the likes of Buttler, Stokes and Moeen Ali, England was looking to explode. But DJ Bravo and Carlos Brathwaite had different plans. First Buttler was undone by Brathwaite. 2 overs later, DJ Bravo did some champion dance as he send back Stokes and Ali in 3 deliveries. Root followed them in the next ball. West Indies somehow applied brakes on their proceedings. Jordan (12) and David Willey (21) played some big shots to end England's inning on 155/9.
Its all set for West Indies to lift the trophy because the kind of batting power they had, this total looked very ordinary. But golden arm of Root did some unexpected stuffs. He send back Charles and Gayle within 3 balls to gave England all reason to fight back into the match. Semi-Final hero, L Simmons out for a duck. West Indies were trailing 11/3 inside 3 overs. Champion DJ Bravo and the man of big matches, Marlon Samuels gave some fight back. DJ Bravo looked scratchy before fall to Adil Rashid. He made 25(27). Andre Russell and Skipper Darren Sammy fall within 3 balls to gave England all hope for the title. West Indies needed 45 runs off 24 balls. Jordan and Willey balled tight lines to brought the equation to 19 runs off the final over. Its England's game to loose now. Ben Stokes to defend 19 runs in final over in front of Carlos Brathwaite. What happened next was History.
Ball 1 : SIX
Ball 2 : SIX
Ball 3 : SIX
Ball 4 : SIXXXXX
and there comes the famous,"Carlos Brathwaite, Carlos
Brathwaite, REMEMBER THE NAME". And its a history for West Indies. Oh my word, What a game we had witnessed of. They became to the only team to won 2 ICC T20 World Cup. And their Skipper Darren Sammy became their golden captain. One should feel sorry for Ben Stokes. It reminds me the Semi-Final of World T20, where Mike Hussey destroyed sipnner Ajmal in the last over.
Expectations in T20 World Cup 2020
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| Image Source - Google | Image by - cricket.com.au |
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