Dream come true, gushes Springer

“Back home in the Caribbean, the pitches don’t spin, and here the ball spins and we just wanted to take that out of the mind and just play the ball how we see it. If it spins, it spins,” Hetmyer said of his approach. “It was a bit challenging as I had not got any runs in the preliminary games. I just back myself, play some sweep shots and work harder in practice.”

Hetmyer changed the tide in over off Saeed Sarkar, the off-spinner, by hitting two well-timed fours and a six.

“Yes, very much the turning point. I hit some good balls there, just bringing some confidence back to me and the dressing room,” he said of the difference that over made to his approach. “They knew that I was there and just started to get some runs as well.”

While the knock against Pakistan was played in front of a near-empty stadium in Fatullah, the semifinal innings came in front of a vociferous home support of around 15,000 people. Hetmyer, however, played down the hype.

“It wasn’t really playing on my mind because I have played a few games in front of big crowd back home,” he said. “To be honest, it made me comfortable because the noise and the sound, it kind of took me back home. When I play at home, we have a lot of people come and support me and my team as well.”

What is remarkable about West Indies’s qualification to the final is that it had lost the bilateral series against Bangladesh in early January. Hetmyer, however, saw the positive side of it.

“It’s a very big transformation, but I would put it down to the guys not being accustomed to the conditions here in Bangladesh,” he said. “The guys just needed a little time to adjust to the pitches and to the weather, all in one.”

Asked to sum up his feeling after making it to the final, Hetmyer said, “It’s a very, very good feeling for us. Being the second West Indies team to get into the final and possibly, if we play as well as we did today, we’ll win the final as well. It’s a very, very good feeling for us and for the people back home in the West Indies.

“I think we have a very good team here and a very capable set of young men here for the next set of five-ten years to come.”

In the here and now, the focus is on lifting the cup.

“We still have our job to do,” said Springer. “We’ve got one more game and after that, once we come on top, we’ll sure have a party Caribbean style.”