Kolkata 2016: How Carlos Brathwaite Hit Four Sixes to Win West Indies a Second World T20

On 3 April 2016, at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, West Indies began the last over of the World Twenty20 final needing 19 runs to beat England. Ben Stokes was bowling and Carlos Brathwaite was on strike. Brathwaite hit the first four balls for six, and West Indies won by four wickets with two balls to spare. They became the first team to win the men's World T20 twice.

Those four balls are what people remember. The rest of the evening explains why they mattered: an England collapse in the middle overs, a West Indies chase that almost ended in the third over, and one batter, Marlon Samuels, who held it together until the finish.

England’s innings: a recovery, then three wickets for one run

West Indies won the toss and chose to bowl. England lost Jason Roy, bowled by Samuel Badree in the first over, then Alex Hales for 1 and Eoin Morgan for 5. They were 23 for three in the fifth over.

Joe Root and Jos Buttler rebuilt. Buttler made 36 before Brathwaite had him caught by Dwayne Bravo at 84 for four, and Root went on to a half-century. At 110 for four in the 14th over, England had six overs left to set a big target.

Then Bravo took two wickets in three balls, Stokes for 13 and Moeen Ali for a duck, and Brathwaite removed Root in the next over. England went from 110 for four to 111 for seven. David Willey’s 21 and Chris Jordan’s unbeaten 12 took them to 155 for nine. Brathwaite finished with three for 23 from his four overs, and Bravo also took three wickets.

A total of 155 left England competitive rather than comfortable. The collapse probably cost them runs that would have made the last over much harder for West Indies, though no one can know how many a set Root would have added.

The chase: 11 for three, and a reprieve

England’s defence started better than they could have hoped. Root, given the ball early, removed both openers, Johnson Charles and Chris Gayle, in one over. Willey then trapped Lendl Simmons lbw first ball. West Indies were 11 for three in the third over.

Samuels and Bravo then added 75 for the fourth wicket, slowly. When Samuels was on 27 he edged Liam Plunkett and Buttler claimed the catch, but replays showed the ball had touched the ground and Samuels stayed in. Bravo was out for 25 at 86 for four, caught off Adil Rashid.

Willey came back to remove Andre Russell for 1 and the captain, Darren Sammy, for 2. At 107 for six, West Indies still needed 49, and Samuels was the only established batter left. Willey ended with three for 20 from four overs, the best figures of the final.

The last over

Brathwaite and Samuels brought the target down to 19 from six balls. Stokes bowled the 20th over, with Brathwaite on strike and Samuels, the set batter, at the other end.

Brathwaite hit the first ball for six, then the second, then the third. The fourth also went for six and the match was won. On commentary, Ian Bishop shouted: “Carlos Brathwaite! Carlos Brathwaite! Remember the name!” Brathwaite finished on 34 not out from 10 balls, with one four and four sixes. Twenty-four of those runs came from his last four balls.

He was an unlikely source of the winning runs. In the final he went past 20 runs and past two wickets in an innings, neither of which he had done in 14 earlier international white-ball matches over roughly five years.

Samuels: two finals, two match-winning innings

Samuels finished on 85 not out and was named player of the match. He had played a similar innings in a final before. On 7 October 2012, at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, West Indies were 32 for two halfway through their innings against Sri Lanka, with Samuels on 20 from 32 balls. He went on to 78 from 56 balls with six sixes, West Indies made 137 for six, and Sri Lanka were bowled out for 101. West Indies won by 36 runs, and Samuels was player of the match then too.

The two innings had a lot in common. Both started slowly and then accelerated, and in both his team’s total was built mainly around him. In Kolkata, his 85 runs were more than half of West Indies’ 161 for six.

The usual story credits Brathwaite with winning the final. A fairer reading is that Samuels made the chase possible and Brathwaite finished it. Without Samuels at one end from the third over to the last, there would have been no last over worth talking about.

What the final says about T20 finishes

Darren Sammy captained West Indies in both the 2012 and 2016 finals. In Kolkata four West Indies bowlers shared England’s nine wickets: Brathwaite and Bravo with three each, Badree with two and Russell with one.

For England, the defeat came down to one over, but the causes were spread across the match. Their bowlers had West Indies at 11 for three and 107 for six. Willey and Root had done their jobs. The total, after the slide from 110 for four, left no room for one bad over.

Nineteen from six balls looks like a strong position for the bowling side. But in T20 the margin depends on who is on strike. A lower-order batter who hits the ball a long way needs only three or four clean connections. Kolkata showed how quickly a defence that had worked for 19 overs can be undone.

A West Indies double at Eden Gardens

The men’s title was not West Indies’ only win at Eden Gardens. In the women’s final, West Indies beat Australia by eight wickets. Australia made 148 for five, and West Indies reached 149 for two in 19.3 overs, with Hayley Matthews scoring 66 and Stafanie Taylor 59. West Indies left the tournament with both World T20 trophies, and the four sixes off Stokes became one of the best-known endings in the format.