Test Match Special - Carlos Brathwaite remembers THAT final

Episode Date: October 20, 2021

Five years ago, Carlos Brathwaite finished off one of the most remarkable ends to any final in any sport. The West Indies all-rounder hit four consecutive sixes off Ben Stokes’ bowling to win the World T20. As England prepare to take on the West Indies again for this year’s tournament, Carlos Brathwaite looks back on the West Indies’ remarkable triumph.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. To embrace the impossible requires a vehicle that pushes what's possible. Defender 110 boasts a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms, a weighting depth of 900 millimeters and a roof load up to 300 kilograms. Learn more at landrover.ca. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. The Stokes is on his way again, virtually all the field is inside the circle now. Stokes comes in, bowls to breath, and hits in for six, and wins the game.

With four successive sixes in the last over. I've never seen that before. Champion Champion Champion Yeah, going into the tournament First day wasn't a part of the squad

and there was a slight issue of a pay dispute and all that sort of stuff England could face a weakened West Indies team in that opening game of cricket's World's T20 if their squad don't sign contracts

by Sunday. It's emerged that Captain Darren Sammy wrote to the cricket board this week querying a number of issues on the agreed pay package to play in India. And I remember messaging Bravo and asking him, like, WhatsApp, because I know it was a reserve, and I just wanted to know where the players stood on the whole issue

and all that sort of stuff. And he was like, no, we can play. We can win the World Cup. So if selected, just know that we're all in type of thing. And they were stalked through the great vine that Pollard was injured and looking around the reserves, looking around the squad that they had. I figured that I would be very close. if not the next person to be called up.

Got the final news a couple days after, just double-checked with him again, is it all systems go, or the situation? And then yeah, he was like, we are going to the World Cup, and we're going to win the World Cup. So here, I think going into the World Cup, everybody was buzzing and everybody was confident.

And I'm not sure how Bravo envisioned it, but he calls himself. the champion and then you know it's not the most lyrically inclined song but for some reason it resonated with us and you know it became type of anthem type of thing you always look forward to winning the game and then playing the song at the end so it's probably not the best song in the world but for us at that point in time it was very important I know, it kind of, as a collective, it just kind of galvanized us. We had that steely determination.

There was a lot being said around the time as well. Rest Indies aren't smart cricketers. They probably won't get out of the group. We're in a group with South Africa and England. Sri Lanka, I think, as well. And yeah, and everyone just had us to finish just above Afghanistan and go at the end of the first round. and I remember us thinking in a few team meeting just like,

well, we got everything to play for no one expects us to do anything but go out, so let me just go and express ourselves. And with a team of seasoned T20 professionals who played a lot in the IPL by that time as well, we were probably the most equipped team to play that World Cup. Not only had seasoned professionals, as I mentioned, but they had played IPL cricket. they were accustomed to the crowds they were accustomed to the grounds and they had a lot inside

information so for us we were kind of damn fondly as to why we weren't seen as favorites but we're kind of happy to go and the dog's tag. Dale who pushes slides away off the face of the bat and there it is his 17th century in 2020 cricket this one not his fastest 47 balls he's at 11-6s and 5 4 440 and he's down on his knees in the middle of the pitch with his bat raised, his helmet raised, waving towards his teammates in the West Indies dressing room and now to the crowd too, they love him here.

What a showman and what aboutsman in this form of the game. He's still celebrating. He is, he's pumping his arms, then swishing his bat as if he's, I don't know, seeing a wasp away. I remember Sulema, Ben telling him, go out there and entertain me. And he did just that.

just that. It was balls flying all over the place. I just remember we were just like, wow, what a start. Chris Gale there, terrific innings. It really is. I mean, the more opportunity you have to watch Chris Gail bat, you've got to say this is, he's special. Two overs left, 12 balls. And my Sydney's need. One to win, and goes topfully, The bowls is an ugly, ugly shot from Russell, but it doesn't matter. The balls come off an edge and runaway down to Fine Lake for the winning run. And it's the West Indies who take the points. They've won by six wickets with 11 balls to spare of a match-winning century by Chris Gale,

who's been the difference between the two teams here, 100 not out, from 48 balls. He's 17th in this form of the game. He hit 11-6s and 5-4s. And frankly, he made England's total there look inadequate. The players shake hands, the jets of steam, shoot up into the night sky here in Mumbai. And I mean, at that point in time, you could tell that it was a winning mentality because it wasn't a case of, like, well done, real indie World Cup for sure. Like, we expected it to be handed to us.

It was just, like, brilliant, more of the same who's next type of thing. So, yeah, so I just remember, like, just being, I know, just the determination, the team, the excitement in the dressing room for everyone's performances, and it was a real good team dynamic at that point in time. You obviously as well had, like, a bit of a hierarchy. So you knew the senior guys were Sammy is captain, Bravo, Chris, Russell at the time. And then it was just like younger guys, like myself, Jason Holder. the nurse, Evan Lewis, we just Fletcher, Johnson Child, we just play our part, but we expected them to do the majority of the bowling, batting, winning the games, and we just knew that

we had to be in the game for long enough and pick up the slack if they didn't come to fruition and Badry had a fantastic tournament as well. Everything just clicked. We didn't have that one player that stood out and won us every game. We had different combinations, contributions from different people at different times and it was all when it mattered. Baby, I like your stone. Here's Koli. Well, they're taking their time

and so they should. Here he is again. Right arm over. Little medium skitters. Bowls of full toss and that's it for the West Indies. He's gone searing into the deep midwicked boundary over into the second tier

and the West Indies player sprint out from the dugout and two groups have formed. One grabbing Andre Russell, one grabbing Lendell Simmons. They jump up and down and the West Indies from the most unlikely situation. The big guns of Samuels and Gail going quickly in this response have knocked off the 193 runs to win in fine style. Russell finishes 43, not out of 20.

Simmons 82 from 51. West Indies finish 196 for 3 and they win by seven wickets and meet England on Sunday evening at Eden Gardens Kolkata. Well, after the semi-final, the most fun part of that was, I don't know if we got in trouble for it, but we had a nice little steel pan session on the lunch tins. And it was, it's still my video on my Instagram probably, but it was just a nice little steel pan session. Everybody around the lunch table in Mumbai. and you've got all these heaters for the lunch and stuff.

And we're just playing pots and pans and a nice little vibe, a nice little couple of jingles. Everybody dancing, everybody shouting. And yeah, to beat India in India with the team that they had, again, It wasn't as if, like, yeah, we're in the final. It was more like, who's next. Like, it was always looking forward to that next game. It was always the job isn't over until the tournament is done

and we've won it type of thing. And yeah, that's still a determination. But after every game, we still found time to enjoy the victory. And that was real good. That was real important. It's almost as though you work so hard in the 40 overs. And then you stick up in, you have a blast, couple hours you enjoy it but then as soon as it's done you go to bed you wake at your next day

who's next you flip the switch you work hard again and we look forward to the next game if we played our best game there was not much teams in the world that can touch us we had a very open game plan we won the toss we bowled first our attack minus sunil was not an attack that would blow a team away but we had skillful creators we could keep teams down under 200 do on a consistent basis under 180 in most instances in India is a challenging score and we back ourselves to keep you under 180 and then if we have to chase 180 as a batting unit we know that when it gets down to the last five six over as we can easily get 70 72 75 with the line up that we had at 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 all the way down so for a lot of teams they batted first knowing what we can do

the last five overs and in the end had to go a lot harder than they would want to knowing the strength in death and our hitting at the bottom so as a team we knew that and we knew that as a bowling unit we didn't need to bowl at 90 miles or not but we didn't need to spin the ball both ways we just needed to contain build pressure and as a result of our batting lineup it would put pressure on the team that's batting and the bowlers wouldn't have that difficult a task that being said whenever a huge total was made, the batting lineups still found the way. You think about Lendo Simmons coming in in the semi-final, batting as to victory, Fletcher against Sri Lanka, Gales, Hundred. There were always

times Samuels in the finals, there were always times when the batsmen needed to step up and on every occasion they did. Yes, hello everyone. Welcome to Eden Gardens in the centre of the teeming city of Kolkata. It's a broiling early evening. This afternoon we've already seen West Indies women beat Australia in that their final, lots of runs scored too, which is good news for this final final game. England against the West Indies to bring to a close this three-week festival of T20 cricket. You can hear the crowd, I'm sure.

Darren Sammy's won the toss. In a row, I think you've won, eh? Remarkable. What are you going to do? Well, if it's not broken, we won't fix it, so we're going to bowl first. Humpies in the middle. West Indies gathering themselves. down there and see Chris Gale having a last slug from a bottle of water and now they're going into a huddle there just to remind themselves of what they want to do I can see Alex Hales well inevitably nervous he's got his back tucked under his left arm putting his gloves on and they've been good the West Indies England will have spent a lot of time but

perhaps not too much how are we going to deal with Badry Badry he looks like a leg spinner He hardly ever spins a leg break, but he kind of bowls top spinners or googlys. Badry again with a slip bowles and, oh, he's got straight through, he's bowling. Roy is bold. Joe Root already out there. Just trying to compose himself, doing a few physical jigs, but what a great start for the West Indies. And he goes again, bowling right on. The fast medium and hails is out.

Caught at short, fine leg. He's picked out the man there, feeling inside the circle, not. much of a ball. 23 for two. Badry wants more bowls and is caught. Court at slip. That's why Chris Gale's standing there. It slipped away off the edge and England lose their third wicket in the fifth over. They've lost their captain. Morgan out for five. For Butler it was just a matter of keeping him tight. He obviously had to stop the dink, and then you didn't want to give him

any room to flay his hands. If he gets room, he can hit the ball 360. And yeah, it was just hard into the hit. Restrict him. He slapped it to Co-Corner, deep midwickedish. Beth White, wide of the crease this time, and Butler flips him. Short on jab, caught knee-deep.

DJ Bravo does his champion dance in celebration. It was short. It was a little punch shot that were flat from Josh Butler. And he went straight to the field or at deep midwicked. So Butler has gone. England are 84 for 4. Bravo again, Rocky those shoulders runs in.

Bowles short and Stokes has chipped that in the air and is caught at backward point. You've got a real tangle. As Bravo's on his way again, Bowles down the leg side this time. Appeal for a catch and he's out. Second ball. Mowin's caught down the leg side. For Root, you just know that he'll get in. He'll get a 30.

kind of quickly but he won't take the game away from you in comparison to Stokes a butler potentially even a really who has a couple T20 hundred so for him it was just taking the pace off the ball along him to get singles if he wanted to but really cutting out that bad ball that would give him a cut or a straight drive back over your head for four or whatever so for him it was just containing the boundary balls and asking him to force the play and remember just running and rolling with a hand over it and he played a kind of cheeky dink and got caught at a short fine leg. Breath of comes in bowls to Root.

He tries a little dinky shot into the leg side. He's caught. Little shovel over the shoulder, the steam jets go up. Rockets fly into the night sky and I think with that probably unless something absolutely ridiculous happens. There go England's last prospect and this 54 for Rootie played really well. And then really it was just forcing him. to hit to the big side. Again, roll wrist over the ball. Boiled a few slow balls coming on to the back end.

And yeah, just got him caught trying to go big to that big side. 1.36 for seven and the next one, slow ball. He's heaved it out towards deep midwicked and he's going to be caught. Last ball of the innings, Russell on his way. Bowles and that's hit hard. Out towards a deep cover boundary and a desperate save out there. Prevents it going before. Got a very good shot from Rashid too.

He finishes on four, not out, but England have reached 155 for nine. It doesn't feel like it's enough. They're going to have the bowl out of their skins, field out of their skins, take every catch that comes remotely in their way, and they have to hope for a bit of luck with the West Indies batting too. 156 West Indies will need to win this final. Well, from a West Indian perspective, they're delighted. Now, they're all sort of giving one another high fires,

not in celebration, but as a fielding unit and a bowling unit. And Willie is going to bowl the first ball. He's bowling to Johnson Charles. And he kicks up his heels. He's on his way. Left arm over bowls and that's pushed away to the offside. Joe Root very much a part-time off spinner really. He hasn't bowed very much in this tournament.

But here's Rudy. He steps away. Hitting high. He's going to get a wicked. Or he should do. The field are rushing in is underneath it. It takes the catch. Well, well, well, well. Well, well, well, well. Here's root round, the wicket bowels to Gail again, hit hard, down to long off.

Now Stoaks is out there and takes the catch, Gail's out. Well, here's Simmons, the hero of West Indies victory over India the day. Willie comes in, bowls here. He's on the pad, he doesn't play a sharp. He's out with W. We needed a partnership. It was important to kind of absorb some momentum. Bravo had gone in.

If he could have absorbed the momentum, you always back Bravo to get a six or two. So we figured this partnership would have been very important. We know Marlon Samuels could do it, especially under pressure. And we just wanted Bravo to hang around with him. They had a slight scare with the catch-off Marlin when he was given. It was reviewed and overturned, and he continued batting. Plunkett sets off and comes in bowls and he said, edge of court, and Plunkett has the fourth wicket.

The finger goes up. Rudtucker has given it, and Samuels has gone. 27 of those 37 West in these runs were his, and now he's back in the hudge walking off towards the dugout and Butler takes the catch short delivery tried to chop it away

and a top edge goes straight through to wikikeeper Butler and it's the fourth West Indies wicket that's gone 37 for 4 and Samuel's gone for 27

he got a Nick it just carried it wasn't the quickest ball that Plunk gets ever delivered in fact it was almost a bottom edge it wasn't under edge my apologies now

we're going to have a look at this I think I think we're going to go up to the third umpire. There's no doubt about the edge, I don't think. Oh, I don't know, I don't know. Has he got his fingers underneath? Well, I think it's one of those that is probably all right. But I also think it's one of those that we're going to get, oh, I don't know,

we're going to get countless replays. I think he'll come back. No, I think he's going to come back. I think he's going to come back. I think he's going to come back. I mean, I don't blame Butler there particularly. It's so tight. He's waiting towards the dugout.

He's now starting to make. his way back and he's got a message from the West Indies is to say you're fine but Tucker seems to be getting the message right now it's difficult for him to hear Kumar Damascerna just pushing the airpiece motor and it's not out okay it is not out I figured if we'd lost another wicket probably around then would have gone again just to try to absorb their pressure and put myself Russell sammy back into that comfort zone of needing 10 11 over in the last five six seven as opposed to us batting too early and us having to absorb the pressure, especially with

Rashid bowling as well as he was. And they did it exceptionally well. I mean, they got to the point of Russell and Sammy didn't have that big of a role to play. They didn't get off as well as they wanted to. But that partnership was very important between Bravo and Marlon. There is Rashid creeping in bowling short. He's got this high off the top edge of the bat and he's easy Willie taken by Root, coming in from back and point and that's the end of Bravo. Willie from the far end, moves in, Bowles to Russell, short, hit very hard, out to deep mid-wicked and caught. Willie and Bowles, that's hit away off the back foot, out to deep point and a noncholent catch is taken.

And now Sammy is out. because obviously Russell went ahead of Ramden, then Sammy went ahead of Ramden, and then everyone was just looking around like, Chicago, Scots go, should Ramning go? So I just got a shot out, the dugout, and then it's like, okay, yeah, it's kind of a big task at hand here. He's staring down the barrel.

And then, just talking to Marlon, it was all about just getting bat on ball, and it's something that I worked hard on in the lead-up to the tournament, trying to maximize bat on ball in the closing stages of the games. A lot of times we try to get boundaries, the sixes and miss the ball completely. And it was about bat on ball

so you at least get a single. If you hit it well enough, you get two or four or six. And they just had little times where we figured, you know, you're going well, you're going well. And then there was one time where I was like, Carlos, I'm not running. We need a boundary. And I'd been practicing

the scope from the inception meeting up with the team. And I was like, release bowling. the big side is to the leg side and he had the ball tailing nicely away and I was just like I need to pull the dink out now

we needed a boundary and they got the dink out got down low and somewhere back of my mind is just my dad if I'd gotten out there my dad's let me have it he hates to see a dink

he hates to see a sweet Brathlight on strike in comes Willie left arm over the wicket bowls she was spooned in the air oh he's got it over the keeper's head and way for four runs But now it came off and in those moments you practice so hard.

You practice probably a whole month playing that shot in every practice just to play once in that moment during the final when you needed a boundary to take somebody pressure off the batsman that was in. So it was kind of good to see it. Get over the keeper and say, go for four and then you think my timing in the next weren't wasted. And then coming into the last couple overs, we needed 20 odd, I think. Marlon got away a boundary early.

Chris Bowler, fantastic, second last over, nailed every single Yorker, culminating with one that Marlon swung at and missed outside the hour stamp. Well, this is a massive ball. It's 19 from seven. Samuels on strike as Jordan goes in Bowles to come. A beautiful Yorker.

That's one time where we thought we needed a boundary as well and it was a dot. And remember just meeting Marlon in the middle and thinking, yeah, it's an uphill task. But I'll just get bat on ball and I'll get you on strike. And he was just telling me, just swing for it. And I remember walking back to go face

and looking up at the scoreboard and seeing 19 rounds six balls. And I was just thinking, this is a hell of a chase. It's six balls, it all comes down to this. And then I just tuned out after that, just zoned out and I was just focus on the ball, bat on ball, get in the air, get Marlon on strike. Even if I lose my head.

And yeah, your first ball came down. It was down the leg, helped it along. Stokes on his way from the far end. Bulls has hit away hard and into the crowd. It's gone for six. I think I started to run. Because he just got a ball in here. I was thinking, right, cool.

Even if I get catch Marlon would be on strike. And I remember it just flaring off your bat nicely and Marlon was done running circles around the stamp and fist pumps. And I was just in a good zone and it was just like, right, that's one. Let me just calm down. Still got a long long time. way to go.

Well, that's Leiden Pines up. The second one came off. He middley back sweetly. That one went far and it was just like, yeah, that one felt good. Five balls to go, 13 to win. In comes Stokes now.

Bowles to Brathleth. Hit it high down the ground again. It's a huge shot. He was giving it some big ones. The third one was a bit of a shank, spooned and I thought it was out for that one. 149 for six. Stokes sets off again.

From the edge of the circle. In he comes now. Bowls to right-handed Brathing. who swings him over long off, three successive sixes. After the third one, I thought, yeah, it's one. Turn to the crowd, the rest of these women. My wife was there, just give it some big ones. And then, yeah, the fourth one came off in middle as well,

and the rest is history. Stokes comes in, bowls to breath, and hits him for six, and wins the game. I just get chills all over again. It was real good. is indescribable to be honest it's just that feeling of and i guess in a second in a couple seconds like time could almost feel like time has stopped and you get so much flashed back it's almost like when someone says my life is flashed before my eyes and you know you just

work so hard so long and you always want that moment when you can just enjoy it and bask in the glory of your hard work and it just so happened to be against england who's the old enemy in India cricket is a religion in a World Cup final and you got the opportunity to hit the winning runs it was all set up and the first two balls went like that

real quick bum bum bum one after the other and then after the third ball I think they had a little something between Stokes and Morgan and Marlin so it gave me a little more time to just enjoy you saw all the camera phones coming out

and all the lights everyone trying to capture the moment so it was real good it was a real good feeling and it felt as though you've earned this five seconds to really enjoy the fruits of the label for all the years you would have pined away in the gym, sleep this night. It was a real good feeling and it just felt as though everything had just flashed before my eyes and it was just enjoyed the moment. Four successive sixes in the last over.

I've never seen that before. And England looked utterly crushed. as the West Indies players come rushing out onto the field. Carlos Brathleth is an instant hero. I remember, we did a lap. So it was a few of the Beijing boys myself, Jason Haudashton, or Suleiman Ben, we did a lap. Just kind of saluting the crowd really and just enjoying it,

taking some time down a bit. My wife came down, the West Indies women came down. We shared some moments, did some dances on the pitch. It was real good man and then after that I made it my business to call my family they were all huddled everyone from the village came over afterward and telling mum and dad congrats and all that and they called them and there were so many people just shouting they were kiaris honking when they passed my house so it was real good so they got a chance to spend 10 15 minutes I showed them all around the dressing room

so it was real good and then I went to Stokes after like obviously me and C.J. were real close and I asked him if Stokes was around and for that whole tournament I tried to start collecting jerseys of players who I like or were fond of

and I said they wanted his jersey at the end of the game. It just so happened what happened happened but no I went to him and I told him look man somebody had to win someone had to lose but I got a great respect for you and what you've done so far and yeah just sharing a mutual moment a respect yeah i got his jersey as well um yeah and it was good to obviously enjoy the moment whatever's happened has happened but then

to be able to speak to a fellow competitor and let him know like tough luck or whatever but i still respect your journey thus far and obviously now respect it a lot more so that was one of the highlights the night for me and i think that night just had everything in it obviously the performance being being able to share with my wife, being able to share my family at home, all better with video call and then to be able to connect with your opponent as well. So it was one night in my life.