An inspired West Indies on Sunday clinched the ICC WorldTwenty20 crown with a comfortable 36-run victory over Sri Lanka, riding onMarlon Samuels' brilliant counter-attacking knock to win a major global titleafter over three decades.
Batting first in front a 35,000 partisan crowd, Samuels heldhis nerve as he smashed a heroic 78 off 56 balls to steer West Indies to 137for six and then the Caribbeans shot out the hosts for 101 in 18.4 overs.
It is the West Indies' first world title after a gap of 33years having won the ODI World Cup back in 1979. They did triumph in theChampions Trophy in 2004, but that is not considered a World Cup.
For Sri Lanka and Mahela Jayawardene, it was another case of'so-near-yet-so-far' having now lost four World Cup finals (two 50 overs andtwo T20s) across two categories.
After Lasith Malinga was caught in the deep, Darren Sammyand his bunch of dedicated soldiers broke into an impromptu Gangnam dance asthere was a deathly silence at the R Premadasa Stadium.
Samuels played one of the most memorable innings underpressure as he thumped five of his half a dozen of sixes off T20 specialistLasith Malinga's bowling, making batting look easy on a pitch where almostevery other batsmen struggled.
Samuels alone spoiled Malinga's figures as he went for 54off four overs after Ajantha Mendis took 4/12.
While only 32 runs came off the first 10 overs, theCaribbeans, courtesy Samuels and skipper Darren Sammy (26 no, 15 balls, 3x4)managed 106 in the back 10.
The total might not have been a challenging one but the mannerin which Samuels batted, having scored more than half the runs, the inningswill be remembered for a long time to come especially as the other West Indianbatsmen looked like lambs ready to be slaughtered.
Defending a small but competitive total, Ravi Rampaul bowleda beauty to dismiss Tillekaratne Dilshan. The ball pitched in line and thenmoved a shade to knock back the off-stump.
Samuels could have removed Jayawardene who swept uppishlybut Bravo, covering a lot of ground from the deep, couldn't latch onto thedifficult chance.
Jayawardene and Sangakkara steadied the ship, adding 42 runsfor the second wicket, although they were not able to give the bowlers acharge.
Finally, Sangakkara ran out of patience as he rocked on tothe backfoot to pull leg-break bowler Samuel Badree as Kieron Pollard,stationed at deep mid-wicket, held on to an easy catch. He managed 22.
Angelo Mathews tried a needless lap-shot of a straightdelivery from Sammy, which hit the middle stump, as Sri Lanka were reduced to51 for three.
The situation demanded a special innings from the Sri Lankancaptain but he tried an ambitious reverse sweep off Sunil Narine, which gentlylobbed to Sammy who took an easy catch at backward point, as the matchdecisively tilted in favour of the West Indies. Jayawardene managed 33.
Jeevan Mendis, Thisara Perera were run-out due to enormouspressure and after Lahiru Thirimanne holed out in the deep, the writing wasclear on the wall.
Earlier, the pressure of playing a World Cup final wastelling on Johnson Charles as he offered a simple catch to Nuwan Kulasekara atmid-off in Mathews' opening over which was a wicket maiden.
The first run for West Indies came when Kulasekara bowled awide after three dot balls in the second over. The first run off the bat cameoff the 17th legal delivery and the first boundary in the next over whenSamuels punched one through covers.
Gayle, who has been predicting results like 'Paul theOctopus' in the last few days was strangled by the Lankan bowlers and finallyMendis got him with a straighter one that looked like hitting the leg-stump.
