With 20 required from the last over and a set Sam Billings at the crease alongside a hard-hitting Chris Jordan, England would have thought that there was still a great chance for them to chase the total down and win the series which had been squared at 2-2 before the fifth and last game at Barbados. But West Indies’ all-weather all-rounder, Jason Holder had other ideas.
After bowling a no-ball on the very first ball, Holder came back with a dot ball and built pressure on Jordan who till then had faced nine balls and scored only seven runs off it. In an effort to clear the boundary, he was caught at the deep square leg by Hayden Walsh Jr. Walsh Jr was once again in action when Sam Billings, trying to clear the fence was caught off guard by the slowness of the delivery and hit straight to deep square leg.
On a hat-trick, Holder didn’t go for the fancy yorker, rather bowled into the wicket once again to the new man Adil Rashid. It worked brilliantly well as Rashid was caught at long-on by Fabian Allen, making Holder the first West Indian in history to take a hat-trick in T20Is.
There were two opportunities for Holder on the next two balls. He could make it four in four balls and become only the third bowler in the history of T20 internationals to do so and at the same time bowl out England completely.
The six-foot four-inch Holder did both as he bowled a yorker to Saqib Mahmood which was good enough to remove one of the bails of the stump and get himself etched in the history books. Prior to Holder, Sri Lankan legend Lasith Malinga and Ireland’s Curtis Campher have achieved the feat of taking four wickets in four balls.
Prior to that historic over, England had done well to get as close to the 180 runs target as possible. Though it lost wickets at regular intervals with the longest partnership being 46 between Tom Banton and James Vince. But thanks to Vince’s second T20I fifty (55 off 35) and a quickfire 41 off Billings, England remained in contention till the very last over.
Earlier in the evening, West Indies after starting well with Kyle Mayers and Brandon King, were powered by heavy-hitting from captain Kieron Pollard and centurion from the third game, Rovaman Powell. Both remained unbeaten on 41 and 35 respectively.