The West Indies completed the most impressive comeback in cricket history

While baseball gets underway here in the US we saw one of the most unlikely finishes to a game of cricket the world has ever seen. The West Indies and England were playing for the World T20 championship and it came down to the final over of the game.

Before we break down just what happened let’s establish the game. T20 cricket gives each team a chance to to face 20 overs of six balls (plus any wides, no balls etc). It’s the fastest brand of cricket that asks players to score as many runs off 120 balls as possible. You get one run for exchanging sides with the other batsman, four for reaching the boundary of the stadium (think a ground-rule double) and six for hitting it over the boundary -- the equivalent of a home run.

The West Indies were down 19 runs with six balls left. Now, keep in mind that England scored a total of 155 of 120 balls, so the run-rate average was 1.29. The West Indies needed a whopping 3.16 in that final over.

Carlos Brathwaite had an unenviable task. Everything relied on him to chip away at the seemingly insurmountable lead. The first ball, a six. Now his team needed 13 of five balls. Next delivery -- another six. Now the team needed 7 of 4. At this point they were still statistically eliminated. He hit ANOTHER TWO sixes to win the game off four balls.

To give a comparison this would be like a batter having four at bats in a row in the bottom of the 9th in Game 7 of the World Series and hitting four home runs back-to-back-back-to-back. This doesn’t happen. This has never happened. This might be the greatest comeback in the history of the sport.

The celebration was appropriately lit.

Photo via Gareth Copley/Getty Images