KOLKATA, India, CMC – Confident West Indies will rely on their unshakeable self-belief and devastating power-hitting when they clash with an in-form England in today’s final of the Twenty20 World Cup, in a quest for their second title in five years.
Ranked as outsiders prior to the start of the tournament, the Darren Sammy-led unit has torn up the form books and silenced critics, topping their group in the preliminaries with just one defeat, before stunning title favourites India in last Thursday’s semi-final, the reach the championship game.
While acknowledging the threat posed by a strong England side, Sammy told reporters there was strong belief in the squad that they could defeat whatever opposition was placed in front of them.
“I feel very excited. We left the Caribbean with one goal on that journey which was to win the Cup and both our men’s and women’s team have created that opportunity to do that, and as a group we are really excited,” Sammy said here yesterday.
“The confidence in the group, the belief in the group is really high and really good, and we’re looking forward again to playing England. They are a very good side. It’s not going to be easy but it’s a step we’re willing to take.”
He continued: “They are a very good side. We respect all the opponents we play against and it will be no different come Sunday. We will respect England. They have some very good players, they too have a lot of match winners in the dressing room.
“We will plan accordingly towards them but more so we will continue to focus on what West Indies can do and we believe once we go out there and do what we can do, not many teams are going to beat us.”
West Indies will carry into the final the confidence of having beaten England already in the tournament. In their opening game in Mumbai, the Caribbean side chased down England’s 183 to win with 11 balls to spare, with superstar opener Chris Gayle lashing an unbeaten hundred.
Since then, they defeated Sri Lanka by seven wickets in Bangalore, edged South Africa by three wickets in Nagpur before suffering their only defeat days later at the same venue with a shock six-run loss to minnows Afghanistan.
They remarkably chased down 193 to beat the Indians in Mumbai last Thursday and Sammy said everyone was aware they were on the brink of their ultimate goal.
“We came here after winning [the] tournament in 2012. A hailstorm knocked us out in Bangladesh [in 2014]. It’s a format we’ve been consistent but nobody gives us a chance,” Sammy pointed out.
“We just wanted to take six steps. It’s a six-step process to the Cup. We have taken five steps. We took a big one against India. We had a bit of a skid on the way [against Afghanistan] which kind of knocked us off but we got up. We are left with one more step.
“We have improved, we believe in each other. We enjoy each other’s success. Just thinking about lifting that Cup tomorrow, I could almost foresee what’s going to happen after. We have a cricket game to play first.”
Sammy has been lucky enough to win the toss in every game to date, opting to chase on each occasion. And while they uncharacteristically struggled against the Afghans, they have been dominant in their pursuit of targets, especially packing a battery of big hitters like Gayle, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher and Andre Russell.
Following Gayle’s blinder against England, there was talk of West Indies being a one-man team but Sammy contended that the performances since then have shown they were a team of match-winners.
“Chris just has to do what Chris does. Whether he performs or not, it’s not because of pressure because he thinks it is a one-man show,” Sammy argued.
“Every single player in the team is a match winner. We have 15 of them and we saw one (Fletcher) got injured and in comes another one straight of the plane in Lendl Simmons. We know we’re playing a brand of cricket that suits us and I believe in every single player in the dressing room, and each player believes in each other’s ability and their potential, and whoever is out there we just know will take the responsibility to bring the team home.
“It’s not a one-man show, it’s about a group of men fighting for a cause and going out there trying to win a tournament.”
He warned that West Indies were not only a chasing team and would bat well regardless of if they were asked to bat first or second.
And with criticism that West Indies’ batting was one-dimensional with all power-hitters, Sammy said the side would continue to play to their strengths.
“Whatever we do we just have to do it well. I’ve been lucky enough to win all five tosses that I’ve taken but in case England win [the toss], we’ve just got to bat well, bowl well or defend when that time comes. It’s a final and whatever each team does, we just have to do it well,” he outlined.
He added: “From the inception of T20 cricket they have been saying West Indies are a boundary-hitting team, so that’s no surprise to me. We know the power we have in the dressing room and it was just excellent to watch Simmons, Russell and Charles display that type of batting – boundary-hitting against India.
“It’s another match. For us it is one last step in this tournament and we’re focussed on England, but we’re more or less focussed on us. We believe if we do what West Indies can do, we will always be destructive in this format.”
SQUADS:
ENGLAND – Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, James Vince, David Willey.
WEST INDIES – Darren Sammy (captain), Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Ashley Nurse, Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor, Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Andre Fletcher.
