The West Indies cricket team shocked many experts by reaching the final of the T20 World Cup 2012. WI faced a Sri Lankan squad that had previously reached the finals of two T20 World Cups. The Sri Lankans had more ICC finals experience, but the day had come after a long wait for the West Indies. Since the 2004 Champions Trophy, the West Indies had not won a major ICC event, and October 7, 2012 was their chance to reverse that.
Here are the details of the winning match by the West Indies in the T20 World Cup 2012:
The team’s path to the final mirrored that of England two years ago. After losing to Australia in their opener, the Windies were rained out against Ireland, putting them second in the group on net run rate.
WI won the toss and chose to bat first in the aim of scoring a high total. However, not everything went as planned.
Marlon Samuels was the sole standout in this Caribbean innings. Samuels began with a little cooperation with Dwayne Bravo, and then with Darren Sammy. Samuels hit three fours and six sixes to score 78 runs in 56 balls. It was a challenging pitch to bat on, but Samuel performed admirably for the Windies. West Indies scored 137 runs in 20 overs for the loss of six wickets, led by an unbeaten 26 runs in 15 balls from Darren Sammy.
The score was only 70 runs when Ajanta Mendis dismissed Bravo in the 14th over to give Sri Lanka a breakthrough. The West Indies immediately lost explosive players Kieron Pollard and Andre Russel. Half of West Indies’ batting was already in the dugout with only 87 runs on the board. The game appeared to be slipping away from them, but Samuels held his ground and batted 74 runs to help his team score a respectable total of 137/6.
Also read: England’s long awaited ICC World T20 victory in 2010
Sri Lanka’s chances of winning the championship could not be greater. They were at home, with a fantastic batting team, chasing 138 runs in 20 overs. So it was the ideal time for Sri Lanka to capture the World T20 title. However, it was proved once again that cricket is a strange game in which anything may happen.
The score wasn’t as high as the West Indies had hoped, but the game wasn’t over yet. West Indies batted first and grabbed a wicket in the second over. Kumar Sangakkara entered the crease to join his skipper Mahela Jayawardene after Tillakaratne Dilshan was dismissed for a duck.
Also read: The T20 win by Pakistan in 2009
When Sangakkara was removed at 22, the seasoned pair had progressively improved the team total and were about to reach the 50-run mark. When Jayewardene followed him to the dugout, Sri Lanka worried about a batting collapse. From 48/1, Lankans were battling at 69/7, and WI took command.
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