‘I thought, I've just lost the World Cup. I couldn't believe it’
Still trying to recuperate from the shock, England all-rounder Ben Stokes said that he felt as if "the whole world had come down" on him after being hit for four consecutive sixes in the title-deciding final over of the ICC World Twenty20 against West Indies, in Kolkata.
With West Indies needing 19 to win in the final over, Carlos Brathwaite smashed four consecutive sixes of the first four deliveries to help his side claim their record second World Twenty20 title.
"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 on me," Stokes told The Daily Telegraph.
"There weren't any good things going through my mind. It was just complete devastation.
"For about 40 minutes at the end of the game I knew I just had to deal with it. I had to come back out on the field, collect my medal and listen to all the speeches. I knew the cameras would be all over me to see how I was. Obviously, I was gutted but I did not want to show that. I wanted to keep my head up," he said.
But the 24-year-old all-rounder believes that the final over will help him to become a more mature and better player in the future.
"Disappointment is the biggest emotion now. I remember getting the medal and thinking it's just a runners-up medal. You don't want it," he said.
"You want the winner's medal but then later we had two hours in the changing room and all the lads had medals around their neck and we were saying nobody can take this moment away from us. We played for our country in a World Cup final. Let's be proud of that.
"Setbacks make you want to be better again. This will be in my mind for quite a long time and I will reflect on it for a long time. It will be a little bit of motivation to make sure this does not ever happen again. So train 10 minutes longer every now and again to get better," he said.
Stokes said irrespective of the tragedy if given an opportunity he is ready to take up the challenge to bowl a last over of a summit clash again.
"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."
