England captain Eoin Morgan felt his side came up short with the bat rather than the ball in the ICC World Twenty20 final.
Ben Stokes was the unfortunate bowler, but Morgan believes England’s problems stemmed from a batting display that saw them slump to 23 for three and then lose three wickets for one run in the middle overs, with only Joe Root’s half-century and useful counter-attacks from Jos Buttler and David Willey steering them to 155 for nine.
“We let ourselves down with the bat on what was an exceptional batting surface,” said Morgan.
“I thought we probably fell about 40 short.
“When we were continuously losing wickets, we were sending messages on just to get a score on the board, because in the past when we’ve managed to do that, we’ve found something within our bowling that could win us the game.
“Certainly at the halfway stage there was a lot of belief that we could still win the game.”
Two wickets in Joe Root’s solitary over with the new ball – including danger man Chris Gayle – and an outstanding return of 3-20 from Willey almost fulfilled the prophecy.
But Marlon Samuels resisted for an unbeaten 85 – the highest score in a World T20 final – before Brathwaite’s late pyrotechnics snatched victory for the Windies.
“I think the start we had was outstanding,” added Morgan.
“We showed a lot of character with the ball and we put a lot of pressure on the West Indies.
“I think throughout this tournament we’ve shared a lot of good times. But certainly we’re all in pain tonight.
“The bowlers will feel like they’ve let us down but certainly from my point of view, they’ve put us in a commanding position to win the World [Twenty20] and unfortunately we just didn’t do enough.”
Source: ECB