On 3rd April 2016, on a magical night at Eden Gardens Kolkata, West Indies became the double world champion by winning both Women’s and Men’s World T20 in the gap of few hours. This was the first time that the World T20 was organized in India. Being the game’s biggest market, India was a great venue to organize such a global event and tournament was a success.
Although the host nation’s performance was mixed as they lost their first match to New Zealand, won nerve-wracking matches against Bangladesh and Pakistan and qualified for Semi-final after an easy win against Australia. But their journey had to end in Semi-final stage as a superior West Indies team completed the chase of 192 thanks to great innings from Lendl Simmons to qualify for the final. From the other end, England qualified for the final. They also proved themselves as a very strong team and chased 230 in one of the group-league matches against South Africa.
Simultaneously with the men’s event, the Women’s World T20 matches were also going on. The host India could not deliver a great performance and the four strongest teams Australia, England, West Indies, and New Zealand qualified for the knockouts where Australia beat England and West Indies beat New Zealand to qualify for the final at Eden Gardens.
The party started pretty early at Eden gardens as both the finals were scheduled on the same day and fans could enter the ground with the same ticket. Although there was less number of supporters for the women’s final but the fact that the final is happening on the same venue and just a few hours before the men’s event gave the women’s game a huge boost. It was also a pretty interesting final where three-times defending champion Australia were surprised by the teenager from Barbados, Hayley Matthews, who along with the experienced Stafanie Taylor masterminded the chase. When the Women’s team completed the chase their men’s team were already on the ground and they promptly joined in the celebration with their women counterpart, a memory, which the crowd of Eden will cherish forever.
A few hours later, it was the Women’s turn to join Darren Sammy and his boys in the celebration. Clearly, the hero was young Carlos Brathwaite. The chase of 156 was controlled by Marlon Samuels who scored 88 but dual failure from Andre Russell and Sammy and some late tight bowling from England brought the game to a scenario where 19 runs were required in the last over bowled by Ben Stokes, one of the top bowlers for England on the day. But Brathwaite planned something else on his mind. Each of the first four deliveries of the 20th over was sent to the stands by him and with that West Indies completed a memorable victory, their second World T20 Triumph in four years.
It was great performances by both teams affected by the turmoil in the West Indies Cricket board; performances which were permanently added in the rich history of Eden Gardens.
