A new dawn in the West

While all these efforts cancelled each other out,the West Indies had one more trump card,in Marlon Samuels.

The Lankan pacers,Angelo Mathews and Nuwan Kulasekara,kept Gayle tied up and Mendis’ carrom ball finally put him out of his misery,but West Indies’ troubles only grew worse. At the end of six overs of the powerplay,the Windies had lost both openers for 14. With another spinner in Akila Dananjaya joining in,the run rate refused to get up even after the field spread. The first 10 overs went for 32 runs for two wickets. Samuels hit the only boundary in that period,but he would make up for his slow start in spectacular fashion.

To the rescue

Mahela Jayawardene had held back Malinga,and the pacer had three overs left of the eight remaining. When he came back on in the 13th over,Samuels was on 26 runs off 37 balls. The first ball he faced of the over went for a six over deep square leg,the second over extra cover and the fourth,over long on. From the other end Ajanta Mendis sent back Bravo,but Samuels did not seem to mind. Jeevan Mendis bowled the next over and was carted for a six and a four. Then Ajantha Mendis again struck in the next over,taking two in two. Again Samuels retaliated by smashing Malinga for a four and two sixes in the next over. Dananjaya got him in the deep in the next over,but by then Samuels had made 78 off 56,with his last 52 runs coming off just 19 balls.

Captain Sammy ensured the momentum did not go down,with a 15-ball 26 as Windies made 137 for six,a total that looked below par. Ravi Rampaul gave the side the early breakthrough,with a peach that took Tillakaratne Dilshan’s off-stump. However,the Jayawardene-Kumar Sangakkara combine was sedate,putting on 42 runs for the second wicket. Sammy made use of the pair’s caution as Samuel Badree sneaked in a few cheap overs as Lanka’s scoring rate dropped to less than a run a ball.

Under pressure,Sangakkara swung Badree,but only to the fielder in the deep. There might have been a threat of rain,forcing Jayawardene and his men to up the rate to get them close to the Duckworth-Lewis par score,but all that did was trigger an epic Lankan collapse.

Three dot balls followed Sangakkara’s dismissal,after which Sammy bowled Mathews. Eight balls later,Narine had Jaywardene caught at point and the panic mounted. Jeevan Mendis and Thisara Perera ran themselves out in the space of five balls.

When Sammy had Lahiru Thirimanne caught in the deep the next over,Lanka had lost five wickets for 18 runs in 23 balls,and with that the game. After a high-intensity,low-scoring final,the West Indian players still had enough energy left as this time,the whole team joined Gayle in his jigs.

The Jamaican perhaps was still fresh after not contributing much to the final,but spent all the extra energy in his push-ups and dance moves as the trophy was handed out. Samuels,the man-of-the-match,then led the team in a victory lap around the stadium,to round off celebrations that were 33 years in the making.