JUBILATION

After the thorough and thumping victory over Australia in last Friday’s sem-final, yesterday’s final against Sri Lanka was one of attrition, digging in, refusing to give up, running and fielding like their lives depended on this match. And in the end, stunning the massive home crowd and pulling off one of the most amazing turnarounds in Twenty20 history, especially given the stage.

Marlon Samuels produced a brilliant all round performance to guide the Windies to a 36-run victory over Sri Lanka. Samuels hit six sixes and three fours in his 78 off 56 balls to lift West Indies to 137-6 after the side was reduced to 87-5. Samuels then bowled a tidy four-over spell of 1-15 as Sri Lanka was bowled out for 101 in 18.4 overs. Off spinner Sunil Narine grabbed 3-9 from 3.4 overs and captain Darren Sammy picked up 2-6 in two overs with Sri Lanka losing its way through the innings to the despair of 35,000 home fans. Ajantha Mendis took 4-12 for Sri Lanka and finished the tournament as the highest wicket-taker with 15 but still ended up on the losing side as West Indies won its first world title since the 1979 World Cup and first major title of any kind since clinching the Champions Trophy in 2004 in England.

“This moment we’re going to live forever,” Sammy said. “The mission was to win the Twenty20 World Cup and the belief when we left the Caribbean has pulled us through. Today we were down and out but our never say die attitude came out.”

“For the last two years we’ve shown the never-say-die attitude, but we haven’t had the results,” Sammy said. “This moment we’re going to live forever. The team has been through a lot in the last two years, for the last ten years. The mission was to win the T20 World Cup, the belief we left the Caribbean with has pulled us through. Today we were down and out but our never-say-die attitude came out.

“Thank you to everyone who supported us. The tournament is for the fans. The love we felt from the Sri Lankan people is tremendous and we want to thank them for that. This hopefully will be the beginning of things to come. Hopefully this team will go on.”

The West Indies’ cricket team’s victory capped off what has been a sensational year for sports in the Caribbean and came weeks after the London 2012 Olympics where several Caribbean nations including Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada won Olympic gold in several events. Sri Lanka slipped up in its run chase when seamer Ravi Rampaul had Tillakaratne Dilshan clean bowled off his first delivery in the second over.

The experienced batting pair of Jayawardene (33) and Kumar Sangakkara (22) found it difficult to pace their innings on a slow wicket as Sammy applied pressure through a four-pronged spin attack.

With the required run rate steadily increasing, Sangakkara tried to up the scoring but holed out in the deep in the 10th over and Angelo Mathews (1) followed him in the next over when he too tried an extravagant scoop and was bowled by Sammy. West Indies turned the match with four wickets in the space of nine runs to reduce the home team from 60-3 to 69-7. The slide began with Jayawardene, who was twice dropped on 2 and 27, but offered a tame catch to Sammy at point while Jeevan Mendis and Thisara Perera were run out while attempting needless runs. Sammy then had Lahiru Thirimanne (4) caught in the deep before Nuwan Kulasekara (26 off 13 balls) hit back briefly by smashing Rampaul for three fours and a six in one over until he fell to Narine. Earlier, Samuels ensured West Indies had at least a modest total to defend with some powerful hitting after Sammy won the toss and elected to bat. Mendis shut out West Indies’ hopes of putting up a big total when he had dangerman Chris Gayle trapped lbw for just three after the lefthander struggled for 16 balls to get going.

The spinner polished off the top order with the wickets of Dwayne Bravo (19), Kieron Pollard (2) and Andre Russell (0). But Samuels hit five of his sixes off expensive fast bowler Lasith Malinga (0-54 in four overs) before he was dismissed in the 17th over.