Nobody Does it Like the Windies

WT20 2012 marked the comeback of the Calypso Kings back to the pinnacle of cricket after 20 years of turmoil and disappointments.

Image Caption - Sri Lanka vs West Indies ICC World T20 2012; Source: Getty Image

Psy’s Gangnam Style was released on July 12, 2012 to mixed reviews in South Korea, but within a few months became a rage over the internet in the United States. Located right below USA in the Caribbean Sea is a collection of 13 islands, collectively known as the West Indies. The obsession, expectedly, spread to the Caribbean as well.

The West Indies were a cricketing powerhouse from the 60s right up to the 90s. Then began their slow but steady demise, culminating in many humiliations on the biggest stages in world cricket. However, with the rise of T20 cricket came their chance at regaining lost glory.

In Bravo, Gayle, Pollard and Sammy, West Indies had some of the most flamboyant cricketers in T20 cricket. There wasn’t a franchise cricket league that they hadn’t conquered. Yet, people didn’t see them lifting the trophy as a unit.

One after the other, however, they kept putting teams to bed. Tournament favourites Australia, who had thus far dominated the teams they played, got steamrolled in the semi-finals. The only team that stood in the way of the Windies and silverware, were the hosts- Sri Lanka.

SL had had their own share of heartbreaks. Apart from Australia, very few teams had been so consistently good like they had been. However, they had lost all the major recent finals- sometimes to individual brilliance and sometimes, to collective team efforts. Whatever the cause, they were consistently getting the short end of the stick.

A World Cup in their home backyard was touted as the means to changing their fortune. For a good chunk of the final, it seemed like they had gotten rid of the jinx. Little did they know that their jinx would take the form of a tall man who batted at number three for the West Indies.

The turnaround began with a scathing assault of SL’s star bowler, Lasith Malinga- he ended up giving away 54 runs in just 4 overs and essentially was the difference between the two sides. Sammy carried on from where Samuels left, his breezy 26 runs putting WI’s total beyond reach.

Ravi Rampaul uprooted Dilshan’s off-stump on the seventh ball, leaving Jayawardene and Sangakkara to do the heavy lifting. Alas, all those years of carrying Lankan hopes on their backs had weakened their resolve.

After miserably tottering to 48 runs after nine overs, Sangakkara was sent back walking by Badree. After he got out, Mathews followed, and soon Mahela was back too. No batsman bar Kulsasekara could even break into double digits.

On the fourth ball of the 18th over, Malinga skied the ball deep into the night sky. As the ball swirled down towards Bravo at long-on, fireworks went up into the night sky. Bravo ran towards his teammates, and they ran towards him. After a long group hug, all of them broke into Gangnam Style, as had become custom over the last month. The Lankans’ wait for a trophy was set to continue. People gathered for a celebration in Colombo went back, because the party had just begun elsewhere- and nobody parties like they do in the Caribbean.

CARLOS BRATHWAITE, Remember The Name!

From Psy’s Gangnam Style to Bravo’s Champion, The Windies proved to the world once again that an indomitable spirit can triumph over everything else.

The 2012 T20 World Cup was widely expected to usher in a new era of West Indies' dominance. However, these expectations came to nothing because as soon as the World Cup was finished, the Windies returned to their lousy ways, getting knocked in the 2013 Champions Trophy, the 2014 T20 World Cup and the 2015 ODI World Cup.

In the four years between the 2012 WT20 and 2016, a lot had transpired for them, but none of it was positive. The tussle with the West Indies Cricket Board has gotten much, much worse by now. The board had branded them as rebels, they had a first-time manager, and in the lead-up to the WT20, they didn't even have jerseys to play in. Mark Nicholas called them players with no brains.

Yet somehow, the Windies weathered every storm they had to sail through. Chris Gayle began the tournament with a marvellous hundred and the juggernaut just never stopped after that, taking out even tournament favourites and hosts, India (Afterall, there’s only so much Virat Kohli could do on his own). Lo and behold, they were in the finals against England, who were looking for redemption after the debacle of the 2015 World Cup themselves.

After winning the toss and choosing to bowl first, the Windies put England in a world of trouble as Jason Roy was sent packing in just the second over. Hales and Morgan followed soon after, but Root steadied the innings with Jos Buttler to guide them to a respectable total on a tricky surface.

In the second over of the Windies’ innings, Morgan played the ultimate mind game. He brought on part-timer Joe Root to bowl to Gayle and Johnson Charles. Their egos got the better of them and both of them were sent packing.

It was up to the previous final’s hero, Marlon Samuels to lead the charge again and he did exactly that. But with the destination in sight, Windies started to stutter once again. Dwayne Bravo top-edged a ball straight into Root’s hands, and within nine balls, Russell and Sammy were sent packing too.

In came Carlos Brathwaite, an inexperienced youngster filled to the brim with potential. Along with Samuels, he kept chipping away at the total but cometh the last over; it didn’t seem enough. After conceding a boundary on the first ball, Jordan gave away just four runs in the rest of the penultimate over.

The equation was now 19 runs in six balls. Any other player would’ve snuck a single and given the strike to Samuels, who had been in sublime touch. But not Carlos. Up against Ben Stokes, one of the best all-rounders in the world, he sent the ball sailing over fine-leg to bring the required runs down to 13.

Stokes steamed in to deliver a ball that had little wrong with it, but the cricketing gods weren’t on his side. Brathwait cleared his front leg to send the ball for another six over long-on. The next ball didn’t have much wrong either, but it went into the stands nonetheless. With just one needed from three, a single would have sufficed. But Brathwaite had the touch of Midas on that night, and as the ball sailed into the stands for one last time, he stretched his arms and looked up to the skies in triumph; this moment immortalized by Ian Bishop’s uncharacteristically emotive lines, “Carlos Brathwaite, Carlos Brathwaite Remember The Name”.