Sri Lanka beat India to win first World T20 title
Sri Lanka team lifted their first World Twenty20 cup at the third time of asking following their six-wicket win next to past champions India at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Sunday, April 6. Kumar Sangakkara scored an important 52 runs not out in his career’s final Twenty20 international match outing to assist Sri Lanka follow down the 131-run winning target with 13 balls to remain and thrashed India, the reigning 50-over World Cup and Champions Trophy champions, a record limited over treble.
Sangakkara said at the presentation ceremony that, “It’s been a long time. I can’t be happier or prouder because I think the side carried me all the way through to the final. I didn’t do much other than keeping wickets.”
“I am pretty happy to be able to do something back for them. It means a lot to all of us.”
Sangakkara’s critical 35-ball bang included six boundaries and a six. Another quitting great, Mahela Jayawardene, added a run-a-ball 24. Sri Lanka ultimately controlled to break their curse of losing the finals of worldwide events, having gone down in the chooser of the 50-over World Cup in 2007 and 2011 and T20 World Cup in 2009 and 2012.
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said, “In the middle overs, our batsmen tried their best to get going but it was one of those days when we couldn’t convert the kind of start we got”.
“Virat was the only one who looked fluent but that was after he had played some deliveries.
“We could have always got those 10-15 (extra) runs but cricket is all about those runs.”
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