The “Gangnam-style”
dance craze galloped into Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on Sunday night as
a jubilant West Indies cricket team celebrated winning the ICC World
Twenty20 tournament, beating the host nation by 36 runs in a low-scoring
but mesmerizing final.
Fittingly, it was
birthday boy Dwayne Bravo who prompted the celebrations after catching
Lasith Malinga on the boundary to end the Sri Lankan innings on 101
runs. Arms aloft, he was joined by his teammates and coaching staff,
sprinting onto the pitch from the sidelines, for celebrations that would
go into the next day and no doubt beyond.
This is a team that
loves to have fun almost as much as it loves to play cricket. There’s
always a smile on the faces of the West Indies players, who make a team
full of wonderful people like Chris Gayle, the man who adopted the
“Gangnam-style” dance – an
unlikely global hit from South Korean rapper Psy – throughout this
tournament. Gayle and his teammates bring such unbridled joy to the
sport.
Sri Lanka’s cricketers
are on a similar level in that respect. A team full of inspirational
characters and statesmen like Mahela Jayawardene – who stepped down as
T20 captain after the final – and Kumar Sangakkara, as well as brilliant
rays of sunshine like Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara.
With heroes like these
for youngsters to look up to, the future looks bright for cricket in
both island nations.
The stage was set for
the perfect final. The world’s two most loveable cricket countries, both
starved of success in recent years, both with scant regard for
conventional play, head-to-head in a stadium filled with cheering fans.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa wasn’t going to
miss this one – he was in a prime spot at the stadium to witness events
unfold from his armchair.
But
the president, like the majority of the crowd, left disappointed as the
home team came up short.
Cricket means an awful
lot in this part of the world, and after hosting a terrific sporting
carnival over the past three weeks, it seemed that Sri Lanka was
destined to win the trophy to add to its one and only triumph, in the
50-over World Cup way back in 1996.
And it started so well, as the West Indies team – after winning the toss
and choosing to bat – just couldn’t find the room to score any runs off
an extra disciplined Sri Lankan bowling attack.
ohnson Charles,
frustrated after failing to score a single run from the first four
deliveries of the match, mistimed a shot off Angelo Mathews and the ball
lobbed into the hands of Kulasekara. Disastrous start for the West
Indies, perfect for Sri Lanka.
With Chris Gayle at
the crease, Sri Lanka was always in danger. But this wasn’t Gayle’s
night, on an individual level at least, as he was out for just three
runs after facing 16 deliveries. In a typical T20 match, Gayle would
usually have scored 30 or more runs after facing that many balls. But
this wasn’t a typical match, it was a major final, when strange things
happen.
The crowd erupted in
celebration when Gayle was out. The West Indies is much more than a
one-man team, but Gayle is still a bellwether and with him out of the
batting equation, Sri Lanka’s task looked significantly easier.
The bowlers continued
to pin the West Indies back, so much so that the team had only scored 32
runs after 10 overs, the halfway stage. But then Marlon Samuels
wrestled the initiative back, scoring 78 runs off 56 deliveries. Not
many people can make easy work of Sri Lankan bowler Malinga, but Samuels
did so on Sunday night, including hitting him for three sixes in the 13th over.
It was an outstanding
innings, particularly under the circumstances, and Samuels – who is
bringing his once troubled career back on track – was rightly named
player-of-the-match. When he came to the crease, it was the first over
and his team was on 0 for 1, when he was out – to a fantastic catch by
19-year-old Akila Dananjaya – it was in the 17th over and
he’d dragged the score to 108 for 6.
The West Indies ended
on 137 for 6, a total that Sri Lanka’s Mathews said was below par. But
it still proved too high for the host team, as the chase fizzled out for
101.
Dananjaya, who was
brought back in for the final, was at the crease at the end, but sadly
for him never got to face a delivery. This bright young star, who only
played his first game of professional cricket a few months ago, will
hopefully go one step further when Sri Lanka gets to its next major
final, which one feels won’t be too far away.
A sense of sadness
surely spread from Colombo throughout Sri Lanka on Sunday night. But at
least the West Indies were worthy winners. And Sri Lankan cricket fans
can take heart in the fact that the nation put on a great tournament and
their players did them proud.
- By Will Davies
