Winning Semi Final against Pakistan by preparing a substandard wicket enhanced Sri Lanka’s confidence to go with the same strategy. However, the bigger factor was to win the toss which is not in anybody’s hand which Sri Lanka forgot. Losing toss in the biggest match of the tournament allowed West Indies to follow the same
strategy and bat first on again a substandard wicket. The match went on almost in the same fashion the way it went in the semi-final, but the hosts this time were at the receiving end. A supporting wicket could have given Sri Lanka a better chance to chase in a much easier way. Mahela knows that also very well hence he said after toss that “he would have loved to bat first as well”.
After winning the toss, the obvious choice for Sammy is to bat which he opted. Charles got out in the very first over leaving West Indies not for one (0/1). Loss of early wicket put West Indies on the back foot so they scored only 12 in the first five overs. Too many dot balls created pressure on the man in focus, Chris Gayle who got out LBW by Ajantha Mendis in the sixth over, West Indies were 14/2 after 6. The wicket of Gayle brought Sri Lanka on top and restricted West Indies 38 for 2 after 11. Samuels who came at the crease in the very first over after the fall of Charles and was dropped by Kulasekara, then started to play an innings of his life. Samuels hit the first Six of the match to Dananjaya in the 12th over of the inning which six followed by three more in the next over off the bowling of frontline Malinga. Bravo got out after scoring a run a ball, West Indies 73/3 after 14. While Samuels carried on with his memorable innings, wickets kept falling from the other end. Pollard and Russel got out on consecutive balls of Ajantha Mendis for 2 and 0 respectively. Samuels continued his massacre against Malinga and took 19 with the help of two sixes and one four in Malinga’s next over, innings’ 17th. West Indies after a very slow start managed to score 137/6 in their allotted 20 overs with the help of memorable knock of Samuels’s 78 off 56 balls with 3 fours and 6 sixes. Ajantha Mendis grabbed 4 for just 12 runs while Mathews and Dananjaya took 1 wicket each for 11 and 16 runs. The most dependable Sri Lankan performer Malinga, who went for just 4 runs in his first over, went for 50 more in his last 3 overs. This is what happened when you rely too much on one single person as it puts extra pressure on him to perform anyway. This leads the person to do something different that he generally does not do. We have an example of Afridi in this tournament from Pakistan as the same thing happened with him and he was unable to perform to match his own standards. Mahela’s face expressions were clear that he knew the target of 138 will not be easy.
Knowing the fact the wicket is not that good to chase a score of 137, Mahela started Sri Lanka’s innings along with Dilshan. Rampaul, who took wickets in first overs against England and again against Australia, continued with his tradition and uprooted the off stump of Dilshan on his very first ball, recommended the crowd to keep quite by putting his finger on his lips. However, Sri Lanka were looking good after 6 overs as they were 30/1 chasing 137 with Mahela and Sangakkara at the crease. Badree who bowled well against Australia in the semi-final got the biggest wicket of Sangakkara in 10th over. After the fall of Sangakkara, Mahela tried to raise their run rate but was not so successful and finally got out in the 13th over off Narine after scoring innings best 33 of 36 balls. Thereafter, though Kulasekara played some shots to lift up Sri Lanka’s chances but there were West Indies everywhere. Sri Lankan’s wickets were tumbling continuously and they were finally bowled out in the 19th over after scoring 101, lost the match by 36 runs, making West Indies champion of ICC World T20. Narine took 3 wickets just for 9 runs in his 3.4 overs while skipper Sammy took 2 wickets for just 6 runs in 2 overs. Badree, Rampaul and Samuels took 1 wicket each for 24, 31 and 15 runs respectively.
A big, superb and classical victory for Caribbean’s. MN Samuels of West Indies named “Player of the match” for his life time innings. It is Bravo’s birthday today and what else he would want to have on this particular day from GOD? I am so proud of the guys, said the great past cricket of West Indies and current manager, Richie Richardson. On the Sri Lankan part, Mahela has resigned from his T20 captainship after the final match. The decision seems has nothing to do with the Sunday’s match result but a pre-planned one. Angelo Mathews is apparently an obvious choice to be the new captain of T20 format for Sri Lanka.
Simon Taufel stood in his last appearance in an international game as an ICC Elite Umpire as he has been given other responsibilities. Do not know why but I have a feeling that we will soon see him back in the ground supervising international matches.
Not taking anything away from West Indies, ICC should be stricter in inspecting the pitches for every international game. Pitches for shorter versions of the games should especially be equally supporting for bowling and batting so that every player would have equal chance to perform and for the public to see good cricket.
Congratulations to West Indies for their great victory.