West Indies and England put on a great show in Kolkata. England looked to be out of the tournament after a poor start with the bat that saw them lose three wickets inside the power play. Even then, England did not ease up and partnerships between Joe Root and Jos Buttler and then between Root and Ben Stokes looked to be taking the game away from the West Indies.

England pulled a big surprise by giving the ball to Root in the second over of the match. His two wickets, including that of Chris Gayle made it something close to a masterstroke from Eoin Morgan. West Indies found themselves 11 for three in the third  over, off to the worst possible start.

Samuels went on to score a match winning 85 not out in an innings. It is the second time in Samuels' career that he has played an innings in a World T20 final that has won the title for his team. Stokes had not executed the last over well, but it wasn’t terrible. He missed his lengths and Brathwaite was good enough to hit three sixes to draw the scores level.

England came so close to going from World Cup horror show to World T20 winners. The turnaround in the cricket they have been playing has been beyond remarkable. This is really the first time that England have played Twenty20 cricket in the way that it was intended.

England have lost to some of the masters of this format in the final of its biggest tournament. If this young side can continue to grow, they will be the favourites to go deep in the next World T20 in 2020. West Indies are a better T20 team than England, but not much and the speed with which they have closed that gap has been remarkable.

West Indies players will share the entire $1.6 million in prize money for winning the men’s World Twenty20 title.

By Premji