The fourth edition of ICC World Twenty20 was hosted in Sri Lanka in 2012. The final match of 2012 T20 world cup was played at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Hosts Sri Lanka faced West Indies in the final match held on 7th of October. It was the second occasion when Sri Lankan team was appearing in wt20 final as they were finalist in 2009 championship in which Pakistan defeated them.
West Indies won the toss and chose to bat first. Openers Johnson Charles and Chris Gayle were set to provide good start to the side but failed to do so. Charles went for duck and the most destructive batsman of team Gayle was completely out of touch in the game. He played 16 balls to score just 3 runs.
Marlon Samuels was the only star in this Caribbean innings. First Samuels built small partnership with Dwayne Bravo and then Darren Sammy. Samuels scored 78 runs in 56 balls with 3 fours and 6 sixes. It was a difficult wicket to bat on and Samuel did great job for Windies. Darren Sammy scored unbeaten 26 runs in 15 balls that helped West Indies to post 137 runs in 20 overs for the loss of 6 wickets.
Sri Lanka couldn’t get much better opportunity than this to win the title. They were in their home conditions with a perfect batting line-up and were chasing just 138 runs total in 20 overs cricket. So it was a perfect moment for Sri Lanka to win world t20 title. But once again it was proven that cricket is a funny game and anything can happen.
Check more: 2012 wt20 final scorecard
Whole Sri Lankan team got all out in 18.4 overs after making 101 runs. Mahela Jayawardene was the highest run scorer in Lankan innings as he made 33 in 36 balls. Nuwan Kulasekara smashed 26 in 13 balls towards the end of innings but it was not enough for Sri Lanka to reach the target. Hence West Indies defeated Sri Lanka by 36 runs to become ICC World Twenty20 champions.
Marlon Samuels was given Man of The Match for his brilliant innings of 78 in 56 balls.
