Gayle, Sammy celebrate in Gangnam style - WI wins the T20 2012

And what a match it turned out to be…….. sure even the die-hard Caribbean fan would not have backed himself when Windies were trotting at..  it was an exhibition of patience, resilence and teambuilding – Marlon stood tall among the ruins as one batsman after the other came and went.   So there could be no chance of watching the much touted Gangnam dance – no chance for Gayle at the centre, with grin as broad as his broadest of bats, dancing to "Gangnam Style" !

It was not to be the flurry of sixers as WI crumbled against Lankan mystery spin. Gayle failed, so did Pollard – but the man possessed Marlon Samuels took on the best of Lankan Bowler the Slinga Malinga in a fashion that none has done so far.  Gayle struggled throughout the innings and his agony finally brought to an end at 5.5 by Ajanta Mendis – he made a painful 3 off 16 balls, surviving a couple of close calls. After halfway, West Indies had made a paltry 32 for 2 off 10 – the finals perhaps would be a record in ‘dot balls’…….. yes 54 in a legal 120 ball match – Sri Lanka did 51.  In the power play when field restrictions are in place,  West Indies scored only 14, which is the lowest for West Indies, and the lowest for any team against Sri Lanka.

One man made all the difference - Marlon Nathaniel Samuels; the runs he scored – 78 was his highest in T20 and also the highest by any batsman in the final of a World Twenty20.  Thanks to his assault, WI in the  last nine overs scored 99, which is their fifth-highest in Twenty20 internationals.   Off 17.1 Samuels got out pulling Dananjaya to midwicket’s hands. Still Lankans could celebrate as the target was much lower than what they wanted and dropping Herath for the little Akila Dananjaya still paid off. 

Lasith Malinga went for 54 in his four overs, which is the most runs he has conceded in a Twenty20 international innings; it's also his worst economy rate in an innings in which he has bowled four overs. Malinga was hit for five sixes in the innings, all of them by Samuels. It's the most sixes he has conceded in a Twenty20 innings - his previous-highest was two. In fact, no batsman had hit him for more one six in an innings. In all, Malinga conceded 39 runs from 11 balls to Samuels, which is joint fifth-highest that any batsman has scored against a bowler in a match.

Malinga had a terrible day, when  two other spinners put in terrific performances. The figures for Ajantha Mendis (4 for 12 in four overs) and Sunil Narine (3 for 9 in 3.4 overs) are the two best figures in the final of World Twenty20 tournaments. The earlier best was Irfan Pathan's 3 for 16 in the 2007 final. Mendis also finished with 15 wickets in the tournament, the highest by any bowler in a World Twenty20.

In the end Pollard, Gayle, Russel,Sammy,  Bravos, Charles and more were dancing in the outfield – it was all  gangnam.  Rampaul though went for runs later in the innings provided the break through, Badree & Samuels chipped in with one, Sammy 2 and the mystery Sunil Naraine had unbelievable figtures of 3.4-0-9-3 ensuring that WI celebrated on Bravo’s birthday.

Post match as Windies partied all night, came the news of Mahela resigning.  Mahela Jayawardene has resigned as Sri Lanka's Twenty20 captain, soon after his team lost the final of the World Twenty20 against West Indies in Colombo. He said he will remain captain of the ODI and Test teams until at least the end of Sri Lanka's tour of Australia in January, and remains available for Twenty20 selection. Vice captain Angelo Mathews has been groomed for captaincy over the past 18 months, and is the obvious candidate to take the reins in the shortest format.  Jayawardene, 35, had given up the captaincy in all formats in 2009, but resumed leadership when Tillkaratne Dilshan quit the post in January this year. In his second stint at the helm, Jayawardene has seen himself as an interim captain until the younger crop of Sri Lanka players are ready to step into leadership. In addition to Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara has also led the side in recent years, before resigning after Sri Lanka's World Cup final loss in 2011.

Since last year's World Cup win, India have lost 4-0 in away Test series twice, have been knocked out in the first round of two one-day tournaments, and have failed to go past the first serious round of the World Twenty20.  The team is exhibiting  defensive mindset, especially when out of his comfort zone.  It is just as well that India have failed at T20 too, a format way more popular in the country than Tests telecast early in the day. The captain, though, will tell you India were "satisfactory" in Sri Lanka, where they won four matches out of five, where they were slotted in a group of teams that all won their preliminary leagues.   All these happened when played on pitches that suited Indians – dry, purchase for spinners, not too bouncy and more.  There have been some outrageous selections as the recall of Piyush Chawla the most 6 giver in IPL and the continued failure-man Rohit Sharma.  Sure the Captain and the highly paid Coach deserve flak and some players need to be axed ruthlessly.  Now Champions League would begin and everything else would be forgotten in the avalanche of new advertisements in which all our cricketers would feature in and make merry money.

"Gangnam Style"  is a single by South Korean rapper Psy. The song was released on July 15, 2012, as the lead single of his sixth studio album PSY's Best 6th Part 1. "Gangnam Style" debuted at number one on the Gaon Chart, the national record chart of South Korea.  As of October 7, 2012, the music video has been viewed over 400 million times on YouTube,making it the site's most watched K-pop video, and the site's ninth most viewed video of all time.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.