4 Wickets in 4 Balls: Jason Holder becomes the First Caribbean to achieve this feat.
Jason Holder shattered England's hope of winning the T20 series on 30th January. The former captain's record-breaking performance leads to a 17 run victory in the decider against England.
Holder claimed four wickets off four balls in the final over of the concluding match to help West Indies claim the series by 3-2. He became the first male West Indies cricketer to take a hat-trick in the T20s.
“Interestingly, Women's star Anisa Mohammed was the first one from West Indies to take a hat-trick against SA in 2018, followed by Stafanie Taylor in 2021 against Pakistan.”
West Indies won the toss and batted first to score 179/4. Captain Pollard led from the front and scored 41 runs from 25 balls. England needed 180 runs to win the series. However, England got all out for 162 with one ball left.
England got a steady start owing to the efforts of James Vince, who scored 55 after the early dismissal of Jason Roy but was caught by Fabian Allen. This was followed by another heroic effort from Sam Billing in the unsuccessful but eventful chase. England was poised to win with Sam billing and Chris Jordan at the crease. They entered the final over at 160/6 with four wickets left, with 20 runs needed to seal it for England. However, it was then when the former captain unveiled his once-in-a-lifetime performance and shattered all hopes of England.
Last over Drama
Holder dismissed Jordan for 7 followed by set batter Billings at 41 and two ducks in the form of Rashid and Mahmood to claim his first double hat-trick to etch his name in the record books.
With this, West Indies defended a score of 180 to win the series. Holder again confirmed his status as one of the world's leading all-rounders across all formats. He was adjudged both "Player of the match" and "Player of the series". Legendary Sri Lankan fast bowler, Lasith Malinga also welcomed Jason Holder in this rare feat on Twitter.
While Holder's four wickets in the final match stole the show, other events added feathers to the series.
The Kensington Oval saw the supremacy of sixes across the five matches held there. The ground witnessed 96 sixes, the most sixes hit in any bilateral T20I series. The West Indies vs England series broke the records of 94 sixes struck by NZ and England in 2019. To much shock, 31 to these 96 sixes came from just one match.
This was the third T20I bilateral series where West Indies smashed a half-century (51) of sixes. The previous two instances were in 2021 against Australia (58) and South Africa (53). No other team has yet touched 50 sixes; even once!!!
England's death bowling is witnessing new lows. It became a huge talking point after they got eliminated from the T20 World Cup semi-final and continue to be one. England conceded 67, 55, 64, and 66 runs in the last four overs of the last four matches.
Adil Rashid became the leading wicket-taker for England in men's T20Is with two wickets he picked up in the final game against West Indies. He went past team-mate Chris Jordan who had been on top since December 2020. He took 7 wickets in this series, while one-fourth of his T20I career wickets have come against West Indies
It will be interesting to see how this powerful West Indies team performs in India with their tour beginning from 6th Feb.