West Indies cricket team had defied many expert predictions to make its way to the final of the T20 World Cup in 2012. WI was facing the Sri Lankan team who had played the finals of the previous two T20 World Cups as well. Lankans had a better experience of being at the final of an ICC event but for West Indies, the day had come after a long time. Apart from the 2004 Champions Trophy victory, West Indies had not won any major ICC event and it was their chance to rewrite history on October 7, 2012.
Winning the toss, WI decided to bat first in the hope of putting a good total on the board. However, things did not actually go according to their plan and they lost two quick wickets in the form of openers Chris Gayle and Johnson Charles.
While the usual expectation from the West Indian batting lineup is to deliver huge hits, things were not going in their favour in this match. Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo soon started building a partnership and gave their team some ability.
The score was over just 70 runs and the match was in the 14th over when Ajanta Mendis dismissed Bravo to give Sri Lanka a breakthrough. West Indies soon lost the wickets of the explosive Kieron Pollard and Andre Russel. Half of West Indies batting was already in the dugout with just 87 runs on board. The match appeared to be slipping away from their grip but Samuels stood his ground and played a very important 74 run innings to help his team reach a respectable total of 137/6.
The score was not as big as West Indies would have liked but the match was still far from over. West Indies took on the field to ball and got a breakthrough in just the second over. With Tillakaratne Dilshan dismissed on a duck, Kumar Sangakkara walked in to join his captain Mahela Jayawardene at the crease.
The experienced duo slowly started taking the team total forward and was about to cross the 50 run mark when Sangakkara was dismissed at 22. Jayewardene also followed him to the dugout and Sri Lanka faced a batting collapse. From 48/1, Lankans were struggling at 69/7 and WI were suddenly in a dominating position.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/9kvjJ5hNw7Y
With every wicket, Sri Lanka moved closer to another World Cup final loss and West Indies inched closer to its first-ever T20 World Cup victory. Sri Lanka was eventually bowled out for 101 and Daren Sammy led West Indies lifted a world cup trophy after 33 years
Samuels was named man of the match for his pivotal 74 run innings.
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