Ben Stokes recounts the final over of the WT20

‘I thought, I’ve just lost the World Cup. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what to do. It took me so long to get back on my feet. I didn’t want to get back up. It was like the whole world had come down to me. There weren’t any good things going through my mind. It was just complete devastation.’

Ben Stokes explains the events as he bowled the last over defending 19 runs. What followed was Brathwaite smashing him for four consecutive sixes. The experience is still well and alive in Stokes’ mind.

When he was handed over the ball by Morgan, he explains what was going on in his mind, “People have been hit for 19-20 an over before. It is not the first time and won’t be the last so not for one second was I walking to my run-up thinking ‘19, this is all over’.”

“I knew all it would take is two big hits and it is game on again. I was just thinking about me, what I wanted to do. I knew if I got six yorkers in the block hole they were only going to get eight or nine runs maximum and we would win.”

The first ball was fullish at leg side and it got the treatment it deserved. The next two balls were better but Brathwaite swung them away for 2 more mammoth sixes.

“After the first six, I thought ‘Oh God’ but I was backing myself. I had been in that type of situation for four weeks in all my training so it wasn’t a case of holding back anything and thinking I hope I get this one in, because I knew I could do it.”

Stokes told that he didn’t do quite wrong in the next two balls, “If I am being honest, the next two balls when I let them go I thought they were in but 90 metres later the umpire had both his hands in the air. I haven’t watched it back yet because I don’t want to bring myself to do that at this stage so I don’t know how much I missed it by but as a bowler you have a feeling as soon as you let go whether or not you have got a yorker right and it felt like I had.”

“I looked at the scoreboard and they needed 13 off five balls and then seven off four. I still thought if I get two balls away here and they only get two singles that leaves five off two and it is still on.”

But the third six was where it all ended for England, “It was not until they needed 1 off 3 that I knew the game was gone. When they needed seven runs, I was still backing myself to get us over the line but I just couldn’t. It was amazing hitting. I just did not execute what I wanted to do”

When asked if he should’ve mixed it up? Tried to bowl different, go wide or bowl short? “I have wondered if it would have been different if I had gone four slower balls into the deck but they could have been hit for four sixes and then I would have thought why didn’t I go for four yorkers? I know that I can run up and hit my yorkers nine out of 10 times so I am not going to look back and wish I had changed anything.”

When asked if he would fancy bowling again in a similar situation,“A hundred per cent. Definitely. It is something I work at a lot. Some days they go well. Some days they don’t. That was a bad day but I won’t be shying away from it. You almost want it to happen because if you nail it everyone forgets”

Ben Stokes also appreciated the support worldwide and was surprised that his countrymen supported him through his thin moment. Even Shane Warne had a message for him. “He said, ‘It is hurting at the moment. Head high. Use tonight’s match as motivation on every level so you don’t feel like this again’. Basically he was just reassuring me that everything is all right and just stick to what I have been doing.”

“The support from everyone has been amazing. I reckon I get more abuse when I do well than I did on that night. It is strange. That is when I realised how much we have made England proud. It took us to lose to get everyone to say how proud they are of us and what we achieved. I think if it had been the other way around we might not have appreciated it as much.”

When asked about Brathwaite and the West Indies team, he told “We did not have a beer with them afterwards but Brathwaite came up to me and asked for a shirt. He is a brilliant lad. I wanted to make sure I spoke to them and say well done because I did not want people to think I was bitter. I wished them all the best. It is about respect to the opposition. What happens on the pitch stays on it. Off it you have to let it go.”