West Indies Champions Win the WCL 2026 Final by 9 Wickets — Bravo Breaks England, Simmons and Walton Finish It

Finals are supposed to be tight. This one was decided in the space of two balls in the eighth over. England Champions had recovered from two early wickets to 55 for 2, Moeen Ali already striking cleanly, when Dwayne Bravo had Ravi Bopara caught behind and Joe Denly caught by Chris Gayle off the very next delivery. Samit Patel was lbw to Bravo at the start of his following over, and at 61 for 5 England were batting to salvage a total rather than to set one.

Moeen's 60 and Owais Shah's unbeaten 38 got them to 159 for 7, which was respectable and nothing more. West Indies lost Gayle in the sixth over and then did not lose another wicket. Lendl Simmons and Chadwick Walton added 123 unbroken, the last 40 of them in two overs, and West Indies Champions won the final by 9 wickets with 18 balls to spare. Old legs, it turns out, still know the way home.

The decision to bowl first paid off early. Sheldon Cottrell trapped Jason Roy lbw in the second over and Fidel Edwards had Dawid Malan caught behind in the third, 11 for 2. Moeen and Bopara steadied things with a stand of 44, but Bravo's arrival changed the tempo of the innings. His double strike at 7.4 and 7.5, and Patel's lbw at 9.1, gave him three wickets across two overs. He finished with 3 for 21 from four overs, and Carlos Brathwaite's 4-0-23-1, which included Phil Mustard caught by Walton, was almost as tight. Walton held three catches behind the stumps.

The chase was simple. Gayle hit two sixes in his 21 off 14 before Ajmal Shahzad bowled him at 42 for 1 in the sixth over. After that, nothing. Simmons and Walton were 99 for 1 after 12 overs, needing 61 from 48 balls, and finished it in five. The 16th over, from Shahzad, went for 20, and the 17th, from Denly, went for 20 more, ending with a six. Simmons batted through for 77 not out with eight fours and three sixes; Walton, two nights after his unbeaten 87 in the semi-final, added 58 not out from 35 balls.

Moeen Ali carried England through the knockout stage. He made 70 off 41 in the semi-final win over South Africa Champions and 60 off 39 here, with four sixes, and he was the one batter who looked capable of taking the final away from West Indies. The trouble was the other end. Roy, Malan, Denly and Patel scored 12 runs between them, and when Moeen was caught by Jermaine Blackwood off Raymon Reifer at 115 for 6 in the 15th over, England had to settle for what they could get. Owais Shah, brought into the XI for the final, made a useful 38 not out from 28 balls, and Toby Roland-Jones added 11 not out at the end.

With the ball, England never threatened a comeback. Shahzad's wicket of Gayle was their only success, and his four overs cost 42. The seven bowlers used conceded eight wides between them. The lesson is a simple one: when the top order goes cheaply in a final, one innings, however good, is rarely enough.

The final was played under lights at Sharjah, starting at 9:00 PM IST. The scorecard tells the story of the surface: the only real trouble for batters came when the ball was new or when Bravo took pace off it. Once West Indies were set, a run rate of nearly ten an over came without any further loss. England's 159 was a below-par total on the night, and Simmons and Walton made it look that way.

Simmons and Walton made the winning runs, but Bravo's spell decided the final. England were 55 for 2 with Moeen set and the platform there for 180 or more. Bravo took Bopara, Denly and Patel across two overs, and England had lost three wickets for six runs. He conceded only 21 from four overs in a match where the next most economical bowler on either side went at 5.75. A big-match player in a big match, one more time.

We did not publish a preview for this final. The World Championship of Legends is not part of our prediction model, which covers current international and franchise T20 cricket, so there is no CricIntel prediction to grade.

West Indies Champions are the champions of the World Championship of Legends 2026. They finished the league with three wins from five, beat Australia Champions by 5 wickets in the second semi-final on October 16 (chasing 173 in 19 overs, with Walton's 87 not out off 42 balls), and in the final repeated their league-stage result against England Champions, whom they had beaten by 7 wickets on October 7. England Champions reached the final by beating South Africa Champions by 47 runs in the first semi-final, making 189 for 8 and bowling South Africa out for 142, but could not repeat that form. All 18 matches of the tournament were played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.