Colombo: It was finally the sound of Calypso beats that prevailed over Baila as West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 36 runs to lift the ICC World T20 Cup for the first time played here at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Sunday.

It was West Indies’ first success in a World Cup since 1979 whereas it could not have got worse for Sri Lanka as they faced their fourth defeat in a major final since 2007.

It was as clinical a performance that one could see and after getting restricted to 137-6, Windies bowling hit back to bowl the hosts out for 101.

Batting first, the famed West Indies batting line-up boasting some of the biggest hitters failed to live up to the expectation and found it hard against the Sri Lankan bowlers initially. They failed to get off the blocks and lost Johnson Charles and Chris Gayle within the powerplay. 

Such was Lanka’s domination in the match, that West Indies could score only 32 in the first 10 overs. It looked a lop-sided affairs was on the cards and Mahela and co would have it easy, but Marlon Samuels had other plans.

He went after the bowling and Windies who were going at a snail’s pace suddenly shifted gears big time. At the receiving end of Samuels’ wrath was Lasith Malinga. He was carted for 54 runs in four overs. He scored 78 off 56 deliveries that included three fours and six sixes.

Samuels’ was helped by his skipper Darren Sammy down the order as he chipped in with 15 balls 26 which included three fours.

Ajantha Mendis was the wrecker-in-chief for Sri Lanka with his figures of 4-12.

Coming onto bat, Sri Lanka started their chase off to a horrible start after swashbuckling opener Tillakaratne Dilshan was castled by Ravi Rampaul for a duck in the first over of the match. They recovered well from the initial blow and averted any further casualty. But Kumar Sangakkara’s wicket in the 10th over triggered a collapse and soon from 48-1, they were down to 69-7.

With defeat looming over their head, Nuwan Kulasekara launched a counter attack and took on the Windies bowlers. The way he was played it looked like the match would go till the very last over, but Sunil Narine was in hurry to wrap things off. But as luck would have he was dismissed soon and Windies wrapped the match with eight balls to spare.

Skipper Mahela Jayawerdene top scored for his team with a 36 balls 33, while Kumar Sangakkara and Nuwan Kulasekara chipped in with 22 and 26 respectively.

Sunil Narine was the pick of the bowlers for West Indies with figures of 3-9.

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

By Indian Sports News Network