ICC WORLD T20: A Memorable Finish

by Sampad Sengupta

West Indies celebrate winning The ICC World T20

People in the West Indies will have been celebrating long into the night their team's victory over hosts Sri Lanka in the final of The ICC World T20. As Dwayne Bravo took the catch off Lasith Malinga in the deep off the bowling of Sunil Narine, it marked the end of what has been a fantastic tournament and an exceptional display of talent over the past few weeks. West Indies won the toss and chose to bat and were struggling at one stage, managing just around 35 runs in 10 overs. However, a determined performance from Man of the Match Marlon Samuels helped them get to a defendable 138, which ended up being too much for Sri Lanka to chase down as they were bundled up for a meagre 101. As Nasser Hussain pointed out in the post-match presentation ceremony, West Indies managed to turn a “losing situation into a winning situation”, a quality that I’m sure we all can learn to incorporate in our lives.

The tournament has been a treat to watch, with quite a few games going down to the wire and two Super Over finishes (when both teams were tied and had 1 over to decide a winner). Australian all-rounder Shane Watson was voted Man of the tournament with 249 runs and 11 wickets while Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis was highest wicket-taker with 15 wickets.

West Indies, Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan went on through to the semi-finals after some gruelling games in the Super 8 stage. A feature of all of these teams is the number of all-rounders that they have and the versatility of their players, capable of turning any game on its head. However, no team revolves around only one player as was seen in the final. There was tremendous hype surrounding West Indian Chris Gayle before the final but he ended up failing to make much of an impact and it was Samuels’ turn to step into the limelight and then the bowlers bowled beautifully to wrap up a brilliant team performance. Tagged as the most “dangerous” team, West Indies showed their class in the final despite some scrappy performances leading up to the big game. Sri Lanka were the more consistent of the two over the past few weeks but couldn’t quite turn up on the day.

West Indian cricketers sizzled both on and off the field as they showed off their dancing skills while celebrating their victory. They set out on a victory lap around the field while dancing in the “Gangnam style”, an online dance video which has recently gone viral and become popular all over the world. The flair of West Indies cricket is back and their return to form can only be for the good of world cricket. There is still quite some way to go before they can return to the stature of the mighty West Indian side of the 1980s, but there is definitely hope for this side to achieve more accolades on the world stage.

Australia beat England to win the women's tournament

In the women’s tournament, it was so near yet so far for England as defending champions Australia won by 4 runs to clinch a victory at the end of a thrilling final. England captain Charlotte Edwards won the toss and put Australia in to bat, who then got off to a good start and never looked back. Player of the match Jess Cameron scored 45 valuable runs to take Australia to 142 in their 20 overs. England tried their best to reach the target but fell just short managing just 11 runs off the last over despite needing 16. Charlotte Edwards was later voted Player of the Tournament for being a prolific run-scorer, a mere consolation for England after an impressive tournament.


See Sampad Sengupta's t20 Preview

See George Kimber-Sweatman's review of Hampshire County cricket's outstanding 2012 season