IT IS a formula for T20 cricket ideally suited to their game.
As they have done since the International Cricket Council (ICC) added the shortest version of the game to its list of Cup tournaments, in South Africa in 2007, the West Indies again rely in today’s final of the fifth World T20 on audacious boundary-hitting batsmen supported, not so much by fast bowling on which their once exceptional record in Tests 
and One-Day Internationals was built, but now by stingy spinners.
Their motivation is boosted by a few factors, quite apart from the $1.5 million winner’s cheque.
It is almost certainly the last appearance in the West Indies’ maroon colours of those who commit themselves to global domestic franchise leagues. Their captain Darren Sammy said his team had come to India ‘on a mission’. Referring to the habitual contracts dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) leading into the tournament, Sammy said the players are inspired by the feeling that it is them and the coaching staff ‘against everybody else’.
He spoke of the inspiration they took from the under-19s in winning their World Cup for the first time in Bangladesh in January and the appearance of the women’s team in their first final, a few hours earlier, breaking the previous Australia-England-New Zealand axis.
It all ‘means a lot to Caribbean people’ whose previous passion for the game has faded as their once invincible team has plunged to lower rungs of the ICC rankings in the longer versions.
Incentive is a strong positive aspect in any sport; it alone does not guarantee success. The team that plays the best cricket on the day will be the World T20 champions by tonight.
As dangerous as the men’s raft of gung-ho ball beaters are, most with the telling experience of the Indian environment through their seasons in the IPL, their key men today are just as likely to be Samuel Badree, the 35-year-old unimposing Trinidadian whose wicket-to-wicket control of fizzing, phantom leg-spin has influenced the ICC to name him the new No.1 bowler in the format, and his contrasting Bajan partner Sulieman Benn, the fiercely competitive 6 feet, 7 inch beanpole left-arm spinner.
Their task is curbing England’s own belligerent attackers, the young brigade of Jason Roy, Alex Hales, the classy Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, and building pressure with dot balls.
Badree’s is a curious case. He is cricket’s only authentic ‘T20 specialist’. His method has never been considered suited to Tests or ODIs so he has played none; his last first-class match for Trinidad and Tobago was seven years ago.
Since then, he has had 27 T20s, claiming 38 wickets at an average of 15.05 and an economy rate of 5.44, invariably opening the bowling.
They were figures similar to those in his three World T20s. In 2012, when the West Indies prevailed over Sri Lanka in their first final, he had to wait until the last two matches for his chance. In the final, the spin of Sunil Narine, Marlon Samuels, Chris Gayle and himself had five wickets for 62 in 13.4 overs between them, an overall economy rate of 4.62, as Sri Lanka floundered to 101 all out responding to 137 for six.
Since then he has widened his T20 skills with franchise teams in the IPL, Australia’s Big Bash and the Pakistan Super League.
In a significant reversal of traditional roles between the countries, he has been signed on as part of a Cricket Australia programme to mentor young spinners at a week-long camp in Brisbane in May, working alongside Cricket Australia’s head spin coach John Davison.
In the meantime, West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) director of cricket, Richard Pybus, was announcing plans for a series of camps and off-season training programmes for fast bowlers as ‘part of a plan to rekindle an area of the game that has been struggling in recent years’.
Benn, 35 in July, has been around far longer than Badree. He has played 26 Tests, 34 ODIs and 23 T20 Internationals spread over seven years.
He hasn’t attracted bids from any of the global franchises yet has capably filled the crippling gap left by Narine’s withdrawal from the squad as the most effective T20 bowler on the eve of the tournament. In their five matches on the way to the final, Badree’s economy rate is 5.68 runs an over, Benn’s 5.78. Pertinently, those with the lowest rations from more than 10 overs are both leg-spinners, South Africa’s Imran Tahir (5.18) and Sri Lanka’s Jeffrey Vandersay.
The West Indies batting is the most feared, none more so than Gayle at the top of the order. Their method can be occasionally reckless so that the effort misfires, predictably leading to inconsistency.
The lead up to their triumph over Sri Lanka in the final of the 2012 tournament included setbacks in the group stage to the Sri Lankans, by nine wickets, and Australia. There was also the necessity of overcoming New Zealand in a ‘super over’.
When it came down to the semi-finals and final that really mattered, they were unstoppable. In the semi, Australia were dismissed for 131 in response to 205 for four, based principally on Gayle’s unbeaten 75 from 41 balls and with a collective 14 fours and 14 sixes. In the final, even after Samuels’ 78 off 56 balls that featured his astonishing six-hitting assault on Lalith Malinga, the West Indies had to defend a modest 137 for six; the spin of Narine, Badree and Samuels took five wickets from 11.4 overs between them.
The pattern was repeated over the past six weeks in India. In earlier matches, they laboured 19.4 overs to overhaul South Africa’s modest 122 for eight and 18.2 overs to surpass Sri Lanka’s 122 for nine for victory by seven wickets. The most spectacular meltdown was 117 for eight against the feisty Afghanistan spinners and shocking defeat by six runs.
Such struggles were sandwiched between Gayle’s unbeaten 100 off 48 balls, with his record 11 sixes, that underscored a total of 183 for four and victory by six wickets in Mumbai in the opener against the England opposition they confront again today and Thursday’s semi-final dismissal of India at the same Wankhede Stadium.
This time Gayle lasted six balls for eight, to be quickly followed by Samuels as the innings stuttered at 19 for two in pursuit of India’s imposing 192 for two led by the classy Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 89 off 47 balls.
Now others showed up to revive the innings, validating Sammy’s statement that his was not a one-man team. Two days after returning from Trinidad to rejoin the team following treatment to his back injury to take the place of Andre Fletcher whose participation was ended by a pulled hamstring, Lendl Simmons’ unbeaten 82 out-Kohlied Kohli.
He and the underestimated Johnson Charles’ 52 from 36 balls got things going; Andre Russell’s blistering 43 from 20 balls put the finishing touches to the result.
It repeated evidence of their ability to raise their game for the matches that count. Sammy described the Afghanistan defeat a few days earlier as ‘a blip’. So it proved.
Whether or not the belligerent batsmen amass a formidable challenge today, Badree and Benn, the odd couple, are crucial bowlers whose tight restraint should be fundamental to the outcome.
