ICC World Twenty20 final: Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene get rousing send-off as Sri Lanka win maiden crown

 The victory gave Sri Lanka their first world title in 18 years, having finished runners-up in four of the last six World Cups before this one. The players celebrated their feat wildly

Winning world events is an ugly business. Even aspiring to win is. Ask Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. Before tonight they had reached finals four times, wanting desperately to win, and ended up with broken hearts each time. On a night that these two champion players finally got that monkey off their backs - in their last Twenty20 international match - another champion player played a poignant, cagey innings that cost his side the final. Yuvraj Singh, India's limited-overs talisman for so long, came in at 64 for 2 in the 11th over, scored 11 off 21, denied the unstoppable Virat Kohli the strike, and that spell of play resulted in the lowest first-innings total in a World Twenty20 final and the second-lowest score for the loss of only four wickets. 

 It was a fitting farewell for Sangakkara, who was named Man of the Match 

 

Sangakkara was in supreme touch, striking six fours and a six to take Sri Lanka closer

 Title matches consume the vanquished. This final may have put down one of the all-time limited-overs greats, but just ask Jayawardene and Sangakkara, the redemption didn't come easy. India defended the small total admirably, preying on the Sri Lankan nerves, fielding everything down, spinning a web around the batsmen, but the two champions somehow had enough in them to take their side over the line. Under palpable pressure, against a shrewd limited-overs captain, Jayawardene settled the early nerves with a run-a-ball 24, and Sangakkara saw the chase through with an ice-cool unbeaten 52 off 35. 

Mahela Jayawardene bids farewell to T20Is

 

Kumar Sangakkara is carried around the field after winning the World T20

 

Big finals are a cruel business, though, and history will remember Yuvraj's knock as much as it will Sangakkara's. He has won India matches from nowhere on innumerable occasions, he has buried sides with his cameos, he has turned around games in 10 balls, which is why he was still part of the team in the final. MS Dhoni trusted his match-winner, and sent him in ahead of Suresh Raina and himself. Kohli, now the leading run-scorer in any World Twenty20, had just begun to put behind him a slow start against disciplined Sri Lankan bowling. He had even been dropped by opposition captain Lasith Malinga on 11. He was in a mood to make them pay.

Sri Lanka, though, kept their wits, and gave Yuvraj nothing to score off. That too after Kohli had laced the otherwise frugal Nuwan Kulasekara for six, four and six in the 16th over to make it 111 for 2. That over featured another slip in the fielding when the fielder at cow corner was lobbed after misjudging a catch. Normally you would expect teams to fall apart at these times, but Sri Lanka produced four superb overs. Yuvraj faced two dots from Sachithra Senanayake, who gave him no pace or room to work with.

Malinga bowled the next over, and was happy with a single to Kohli first ball. Then came a yorker outside off. The dugout began to become edgy by now. They badly needed Yuvraj to come off now, and make up for the 9 off 17 he had made till now. You can't even begin to imagine what it would have been like being Kohli there, the best batsman of the tournament, but now without the strike to make the difference. When Kohli got the strike fourth ball, Malinga again produced a low wide one that he couldn't get under, and went on to bowl another dot to Yuvraj before the over ended. That dot was a yorker wide outside off, which went past and very near Yuvraj's outside edge, and that Sangakkara didn't appeal loudly for it said all you needed to know about Yuvraj's innings.

When Yuvraj finally hit a full toss down the throat of long-off, you felt a little sad for the batsman who would once have put these in the stands blindfolded and with one arm tied behind his back. This time, though, Sri Lanka's plan had come off, bowling full and wide, just inside the tram lines, stifling India. Kohli and Dhoni tried their best, but were second-best to the execution by Malinga and Kulasekara. Kohli faced only eight balls in the last four overs. Only 19 came off them, and if this had not been a final and if this had not been Sri Lanka, it was game over right there.