On this day: West Indies shocked Sri Lanka to win the T20 World Cup
On this day: West Indies shocked Sri Lanka to win the T20 World Cup: It was a memorable day not only for Caribbean cricket but fans world over. After more than 8 years of disappointment, West Indies finally won a trophy of note. And in some style.
October 7 witnessed unprecedented scenes at the R Premadasa in Colombo. Playing at home Sri Lanka were outright favourites to win the 2012 T20 World Cup final. And having restricted the West Indies to a manageable 137, the task wasn’t tremendous. But disciplined bowling and some non sensical batting by the hosts meant Sri Lanka lost their 4th final in an ICC event in the last 5 years.
West Indies on the other hand were jubilant and crazy like anything. They had managed to combine individual flair with collective efforts and secured their first T20 World Cup title.
As it happened
West Indies innings
The hosts looked to be in control in Colombo when Windies managed only 32 from the first 10 overs, with Chris Gayle taking 16 balls to make three. Gayle was eventually trapped lbw by Ajantha Mendis. The spinner went on to benefit from two poor lbw decisions by Simon Taufel – umpiring his last game before retirement – on the way to figures of 4-12.
None of the West Indies batsmen were coming to terms with the Sri Lankan spinners. And when Pollard and Russel got out cheaply things looked dim for West Indies. But the moment of the match came when Kulasekara dropped Samuels on 20.
Samuels made the most of it and in some style to dish out brutal treatment to pace bowler Lasith Malinga, with one enormous straight six carrying high in to the top-tier of the R Premadasa Stadium. He eventually scored 78 and a late flourish by Sammy (26 off 15) helped West Indies post a respectable 137, a score which looked a distant dream after the horrible start.
Sri Lanka innings
Angelo Mathews said during the break that West Indies were still 15-20 short. Perhaps they were, but the momentum of that onslaught – 105 in last 10 overs – was huge. If Sri Lanka were not already in their shells, a superb first ball from Ravi Rampaul sent Tillakaratne Dilshan’s off stump cartwheels.
Two of Sri Lanka’s greatest cricketers were now in the middle, but like the West Indies openers they were under pressure too. And would they have thought of three previous World Cup finals that they had lost? Jayawardene was too early into a sweep – a shot he plays well – and nearly gave Samuels a wicket in his first over. Kumar Sangakkara kept hitting even the bad balls straight to fielders and even as the duo added 42 runs, the required rate kept climbing.
With the spin of Samuels and Sunil Narine slowing the scoring, Sangakkara eventually dragged Samuel Badree to Kieron Pollard at deep mid-wicket. Mathews departed quickly before Jayawardene, who had twice been dropped in the deep, buckled under the mounting task, top-edging a reverse sweep off Narine to Sammy.
That began a collapse that saw Sri Lanka lose four wickets for nine runs. Nuwan Kulasekara mustered a brief fight back (26 runs from 16 balls) but holed out to leave the tail end exposed, and Sri Lanka was soon all out 36 runs short. Narine, finished with devastating figures of 3 for 9.
A shell-shocked home crowd of 35,000 capacity had assembled to cheer Sri Lanka all the way to their first ‘World Cup’ success since 1996. Instead, they witnessed the unlikeliest of scenarios as West Indies got their hands on some silverware after winning the Champions Trophy 2004.
The defeat was Sri Lanka’s fourth in as many finals after losing the 2009 World T20 final to Pakistan, as well as the 2007 and 2011 ODI World Cups to Australia and India respectively.
West Indies had dominated the game from the late 1970s through to the 1990s, winning the first two World Cups and terrorising batsmen with a seemingly endless supply of world-class pace bowlers.
However, a fall from grace in all formats had seen them not lift a major trophy since ninth-wicket pair of Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw added 71 to beat England in the 2004 Champions Trophy final, and this comeback was of a similar magnitude.
Brief Scores
West Indies 137 for 6 (Samuels 78, Sammy 26*, Mendis 4-12) beat Sri Lanka 101 (Jayawardene 33, Kulasekara 26, Narine 3-9, Sammy 2-6) by 36 runs
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