West Indies’ Carlos Brathwaite, right, and Marlon Samuels celebrate after winning the World Twenty20 final against England on Sunday.ADNAN ABIDI/Reuters
Carlos Brathwaite struck four straight sixes in the last over of the World Twenty20 final to seal a dramatic four-wicket win for West Indies over England on Sunday.
West Indies needed 19 runs in the 20th over which Brathwaite (34 not out) provided in style by smashing Ben Stokes for sixes off the first four balls.
Brathwaite ensured that hard work put in by Marlon Samuels, who struck 85 not out off 66 balls with nine fours and two sixes, did not go to waste, with Stokes appearing inconsolable at the end of the game.
West Indies finished on 161-6 in 19.4 overs after restricting England to 155-9, when Brathwaite took 3-23.
West Indies' players rushed on to the ground to celebrate and then broke into an impromptu jig after becoming the first team to win the World Twenty20 title on two occasions, after success in 2012.
"It's something we'll cherish for a long time," West Indian captain Darren Sammy said. "Every game somebody stepped up. It was good to see Carlos play like that in his debut World Cup. It shows the T20 depth we have in the Caribbean."
It was a double delight for West Indies fans as their women's team pulled off a surprise eight-wicket victory over Australia in the final played earlier.
Samuels, who had also starred with 78 in the 2012 final against Sri Lanka, was chosen man of the match for keeping the team in contention after it had been reduced to 11-3 in the third over.
Samuels added 75 runs off 69 balls for the fourth wicket with Dwayne Bravo (25) who also put up an allround effort having taken 3-37.
For 2010 champion England, Joe Root produced an allround performance of 54 and 2-9, after being brought on to bowl right at the start.
"We were certainly in the game, put ourselves in a position to win the game," England captain Eoin Morgan said. "We didn't have enough runs on the board, it was a really good batting surface, maybe 180-90 would have been good."
Root grabbed two wickets in the space of three deliveries as he dismissed both openers in the second over of the innings. Johnson Charles (1) was caught at mid off and Chris Gayle (4) holed out to long off as the move to use Root's part-time off spin with the new ball paid off.
With pace bowler David Willey trapping Lendl Simmons leg before wicket off the first ball he faced, West Indies needed another special innings from Samuels to complete a memorable win.
Earlier, Root added 61 off 40 deliveries with Jos Buttler (36) for the fourth wicket for England.
Legspinner Samuel Badree took two early wickets. He got opener Jason Roy leg before wicket without scoring off the second ball of the innings and then induced an edge from Morgan off a googly for Gayle to take the catch at slip.
England was reduced to 23-3 with Andre Russell dismissing opener Alex Hales (1).
Buttler's dismissal led to another slump as Brathwaite and Bravo proved effective in the latter half of the innings.