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Sri Lanka beat India to win title
Published on
Sunday, 6 April 2014
10:46 pm
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Kumar Sangakkara
guided Sri Lanka to a six-wicket victory over India to win the World Twenty20
in Mirpur and end a run of four defeats in global finals.
Sangakkara,
playing his final Twenty20 international, scored 52 not out as Sri Lanka chased
down 131 in 17.5 overs.
Tight Sri Lanka
bowling had limited India to 130-4 despite Virat Kohli's sublime 77 off 58
balls.
Sri Lanka were
beaten in the 2007 and 2011 World Cup finals and the 2009 and 2012 World T20
finals.
Sangakkara and
veteran team-mate Mahela Jayawardene were involved in all four of those
disappointments, and this was a fitting way for both to bow out of
international Twenty20 cricket.
Victory was particularly
sweet for Sangakkara, who had scored only 19 runs in his previous five innings
in the tournament but oversaw a patient run chase that was finished off in
style when Thisara Perera clubbed Ravichandran Ashwin for his third six.
World Cup and Champions
Trophy winners India were hoping to become the first team to hold all three
limited-overs trophies.
But their quest
was undermined by a disappointing batting performance that stalled badly after
Rohit Sharma drove to short extra cover in the 11th over for 29 to break a
second-wicket partnership of 60 with Kohli.
Yuvraj Singh, so
often a destructive batsman in the shorter forms of the game, looked horribly
out of touch as he scratched around for 11 off 21 balls.
With Kohli
starved of the strike, the innings lost all momentum and even Mahendra Dhoni
could add only four from seven balls after Yuvraj's tame lob to long off
finally brought the captain to the crease in the penultimate over.
The final four
overs, in which Kohli faced eight balls, yielded just 19 runs before the
tournament's leading run-scorer was run out trying to force a second from the
final delivery of the innings.
India took
wickets with enough regularity to keep the match alive and evoke memories of
the 2012 final, when Sri Lanka were bowled out
for 101 in pursuit of the
West Indies' modest 137-6.
Kusal Perera was
out in the second over as he sliced Mohit Sharma to mid-off and Tillakaratne
Dilshan holed out to Kohli at deep square leg for 18.
Jayawardene
swiped Suresh Raina to midwicket to depart for 24 and, when Lahiru Thirimanne
nicked Amit Mishra to wicketkeeper Dhoni, Sri Lanka were wobbling on 78-4.
But Perera
announced his intent by hitting Mishra over long-on for a huge six and followed
up with another maximum in the leg-spinner's next over.
Sangakkara
thrashed consecutive fours off Ashwin to reach his half-century and take Sri
Lanka to within four runs of the title.
And Perera danced
down the track to apply the perfect finish and spark jubilant scenes among the
Sri Lanka players and fans.
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