Published: Apr 07, 2016, 05:17 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 08, 2016, 06:36 AM (IST)
West Indies hard-hitter Carlos Brathwaite has gained popularity overnight with his heroic smashes in the last over of World T20 2016 final against England leading the Caribbean’s to their second title. West Indies required 19 from the last over that looked next to impossible, but Brathwaite proved nothing is impossible in T20 cricket until the final over. When the skipper Darren Sammy was asked to describe the emotions in the last over, he said, “First one over square leg, six! YES!”reported on cricbuzz. A beaming Sammy further added, “Come on Carlos! Second one, where it did go, deep midwicket? Long on? YES! Come on Carlos! One more hit away and you know the third ball – six again! Ramdin thought we won. He was halfway on the field.”READ: IPL 2016: Zaheer Khan hopes Carlos Brathwaite will be his usual attacking self in opening match against Kolkata Knight Riders
“Jerome Taylor sat in the dugout and said we’ll win with two balls to spare and he was spot on.” Braithwaite made his debut in 2011 against Bangladesh that did not quite work is his favour. But the moment arrived through Caribbean Premier League (CPL) after which he was picked for Test against Australia in the same year. When Kieron Pollard was out due to injury, Brathwaite was named in T20 squad. He gained prominence further when he was picked for Delhi Daredevils for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 for whooping 4.2 crore.
When the IPL auctions were done and Tino Best heard the news about Brathwaite being bid for huge amount and was all praises for him saying he is one of the best cricketers in the world. He further added, “We have a lot of talent in the West Indies. I know until today you never heard of a kid called Carlos Brathwaite. He is one of the better cricketers coming from Barbados. He just went for big money in the IPL and everyone wondered who that was. You will see.” READ: Tino Best slams Eoin Morgan for calling West Indies Under-19′s Mankading act “disgraceful”
“He is one of the best cricketers in the world. He’s kind of like Andre Russell; he’s big and tall and he hits the ball far. And he backs himself. He’s also a very good fielder and a very good all-round cricketer. I’m very happy for him because it shows you how much talent we have in Barbados. I always felt like Barbados should’ve been a cricketing nation by itself because the amount of talent we have is unbelievable,” added Best.
IPL could prove to be an important stage for Brathwaite to prove his worth further and set up a permanent place in T20 cricket. Despite all the pressure of a final, he finished with an unbeaten 34 off 10 balls in addition to his 3 for 23 in the first innings in the final, which could help him in IPL 2016. He could be the middle order destructive batsman for DD who are yet to achieve the trophy to their name.
