Published: Apr 06, 2016, 07:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Apr 06, 2016, 11:32 AM (IST)
Sri Lanka had reached the final of the World Cup and World T20 twice each between 2007 and 2012, and had lost on all occasions. When they met India in World T20 final on April 6, 2014, few gave them a chance, especially after India’s phenomenal run in the tournament. However, Lasith Malinga’s tactical acumen and a brilliant team effort restricted India to a low score before Kumar Sangakkara sealed the title with a typically brilliant innings. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at the day when the men from the Emerald Isles, ignored and manhandled by their own board, felled Goliath to provide the perfect swansong to two of their greatest heroes.
Things were not smooth for Sri Lankan cricketers. SLC did not pay them for eight months in 2011. That, however, had not stopped the indomitable men from reaching the World Cup final in Mumbai.
The contracts arrived in July the year after. By 2013, however, SLC stripped the players of their share from profits generated from ICC events. Had Sanath Jayasuriya not stepped in, the players would probably have boycotted World T20 2014.
Jayasuriya did not get them their share of the profit at that time. He only promised them the share, but Jayasuriya being Jayasuriya, that sufficed for the cricketers.
The promise amounted to 20% of the profit. Jayasuriya insisted on it, and SLC agreed, but when a fresh set of contracts was drawn up, the ICC events shares were not a part of them.
One must remember here that between 2007 and 2012, Sri Lanka had reached four ICC Trophy finals.
Negotiations continued, with Jayasuriya trying his best for the players. Four days before the big show started, SLC drew up another set of contracts. This time incentives were promised, but once again, they were deprived of ICC events shared.
The players refused to budge. SLC responded by threatening to send a second-string side. Till the morning of the day the players left for Bangladesh, nobody knew which team would turn up for the tournament.
In the end the players agreed, for they knew that they could not let their countrymen down after playing bridesmaid four times in five years.
But once they did turn up, they were out on a mission.
The tournament
Indeed, India were firm favourites going into the final. India did not feature regularly in ICC tournament finals, but when they did, in the five-year phase from 2007 to 2012, they won it. Sri Lanka, as mentioned above, lost World Cup finals 2007 and 2011 (the latter, to India) as well as World T20 finals in 2009 and 2012. The pressure was on them.
Sri Lanka had a mixed tournament till then. They did beat South Africa, skittled out Netherlands (after bowling them out for 39) and New Zealand (60 all out), but lost to England.
Dinesh Chandimal, their captain, dropped himself midway through the tournament, allowing Lasith Malinga (ahead of Kumar Sangakkara or Mahela Jayawardene, both of whom were set to retire from T20Is after the tournament) to take over. They beat West Indies in the semi-final on Duckworth-Lewis, but it was evident they needed more fire to lift the title.
India’s case was different. They strolled past Pakistan, West Indies, and Bangladesh, and bowled out Australia for 86. South Africa’s 172 in the semi-final seemed formidable, but Virat Kohli, with a 44-ball unbeaten 72, had no problem in overhauling it. With 36*, 54, 57*, 23, and 72*, Kohli seemed unstoppable in the tournament.
Kohli found support in his teammates. The Indian spinners, too, were in sublime form: Amit Mishra stopped Pakistan on their tracks; he did the same to West Indies, with some help from Ravichandran Ashwin; the pair again got going against Bangladesh; Ashwin ran through Australia with 4 for 11; and despite South Africa’s big semi-final score, Ashwin again had 3 for 22.
Malinga & co.
To be fair, though Sri Lanka did not seem as invincible as India, they had some exceptional highs, the finest being bowling New Zealand out for 60 to defend 120. Before that they had been unable to defend 190 against England.
Ajantha Mendis, one of the finest T20I bowlers till date, was clobbered by the Englishmen before he was dropped in the New Zealand match. Instead of three spinners they went in with two — Rangana Herath and Sachithra Senanayake. Angelo Mathews would share new ball with Nuwan Kulasekara, bowling straight and slow, and Lasith Malinga will bowl outside Powerplay overs, if possible.
Malinga kept himself out of the Powerplay against New Zealand. Herath rose to the occasion with figures of 3.3-2-3-5, while Sachithra supported him with 3-0-3-2.
But Malinga had to get himself on against West Indies, after Kulasekara went for 17 off the first over. Chris Gayle and Dwayne Smith went on a rampage, and had to be stopped. It had to be Malinga, for Sri Lanka needed wickets.
His first over went for 2; his second, for 3, and it also included wickets of the openers. His job done, he went back to his other bowlers. He had also sacrificed Thisara Perera for Seekkuge Prasanna, for West Indies were not the best players of spin. For the final he reverted to Thisara again.
India posed a serious threat: even if one ignored Kohli, they boasted of Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and MS Dhoni. Running through a batting line-up of that magnitude on a subcontinent was a task next to impossible, more so because India batted deep, with Ravindra Jadeja, Ashwin, Mishra, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar all capable of batting.
India’s bowling success, however, was built largely around their spinners. Playing spin was something Sri Lanka were used to; running through batting line-ups, on the other hand, did not come naturally to them (despite the New Zealand success story).
So Malinga bowled first.
First, Rahane…
Kulasekara took new ball. Rohit got a run off the first ball. Rahane left the next ball alone, for it had pitched outside off and left him. Â The next ball, pitched almost at the same spot, came in.
He was bowling to a scheduled line, at a not-too-quick pace, to an off-side field. India were used to good starts in the tournament, and Rahane, perhaps out of over-anxiety, made an effort to reach the ball and turn it to leg.
He should perhaps have waited for a loose ball. He was fortunate, for there was no one at extra-cover to catch the leading edge. More impatient than ever, Rahane went after the next ball and was comprehensively beaten.
Mathews, almost on cue, stuck to the same off-side line. He was not a prodigious new-ball bowler like Kulasekara, so he stuck to a line just short of a length; if Rahane had to drive, he had to do that on the rise — to a packed off-side field.
The first two were dot balls. Sangakkara, that sly old fox, anticipated what he had in mind, and came up to the stumps. His one chance of reaching the pitch of the ball was gone.
So Rahane went for the slog-sweep, missed the line completely, and was bowled.
Then Rohit…
Rohit was more experienced. He played out the Powerplay overs, rotating strike, waiting for the loose ball to go after. On came Herath, and Kohli went after him first ball, trying to loft him over mid-wicket, and Malinga dropped the catch. Somewhere, in front of a television set, Herschelle Gibbs probably smiled. Or maybe not…
India reached 64 for 1 from 10 overs. The run rate was not good, but they had wickets in hand, and were ready for the onslaught. The initial storm had subsided. Rohit was on 29 from 23 balls. However, he had played only 5 balls from Herath, which included an inside edge and a leg-bye.
So Herath it had to be. And Herath it was.
Rohit gave Herath the charge first ball. Herath dropped it short. All Rohit could do was push it back to Herath.
Perhaps having made up his mind, Rohit went for an almighty cross-batted swipe, and the ball hit his pad. He survived the appeal. He almost did a Rahane.
He had tried to hit straight. He had tried to hoick it over leg. Why not try it with the turn, on off? Rohit went for it, and hit straight to Sachithra at extra-cover.
The Yuvraj-Dhoni humiliation
Exactly why an out-of-sorts Yuvraj was promoted ahead of the power-hitters Dhoni and Raina remains unknown. It probably had to do with his 43-ball 60 against Australia.
That 60 was an excellent innings on paper; however, closer inspection revealed data that eluded the naked eye. From 12 balls of Glenn Maxwell, Yuvraj had scored 5. He got only 14 from shots to the off.
In other words, his weak zone, given his form, was outside off. So they went for the line, just outside off, with an off-side field; if it resulted in a wide, then so be it, but keep it out of his reach.
Yuvraj struggled against those outside-off yorkers from Kulasekara and Malinga in the end. He tried his heart out, but could not get going. However, he had already been choked up by the time the seamers had come back: he could manage a mere 4 from 10 balls of Sachithra.
He finally fell for a 21-ball 11, holing Kulasekara to long-off. All his runs had come in singles. 18 of the balls he faced were bowled outside off.
Dhoni did no better. The fact that he walked out in the 19th over did not help him. He finished with 4 from 7 balls. He tried moving across to guide it to leg, to sweep, or to unleash the helicopter shot, but failed on all counts. The outside-off-stump yorker strategy worked wonders.
There was a wide, a bye, and a leg-bye, but no big hit. Dhoni could not get going, for they had figured him out.
But what about Kohli?
Kohli, on the other hand, looked largely unperturbed till Yuvraj got stuck towards the end of the innings. His 58-ball 77 in a total of 130 for 4 bears testimony to that.
The problem with Kohli was, there was no apparent chink in his armour. He had answers to bowling of all kind; he could accelerate at will; he could hit all around the ground; and even Malinga had failed to contain him in the past.
The new ball failed to get him. Herath almost had him, but Malinga grassed the chance himself. So their best hope lay in keeping him off strike.
To their credit, the Sri Lankans held nerves after Kohli took 16 off the 16th over, bowled by Kulasekara. Malinga knew they had to keep Kohli off strike, for he was already on a 50-ball 70.
Sachithra bowled the 17th over. Yuvraj took three balls to give the strike to Kohli. Sachithra went for 4, all of them in singles. He had managed to keep Kohli off strike for most of the over.
Malinga bowled the next over. Kohli faced two balls, both outside-off yorkers; he got two singles. On came Kulasekara; this time Kohli got three balls, all of them yorkers outside off; nothing — batting deep, batting wide — seemed to help as Malinga’s men on the off-side ring and fence kept everything down to singles.
Then came the last over, where Dhoni played five balls, and poor Kohli faced another yorker. He did his best, turning it towards mid-wicket, but was run out to a direct hit from Sachithra.
The plan had worked perfectly, for every single batsman. Raina did not even get a chance to bat. 131 was all they had to score.
The chase
Mohit Sharma hit Sri Lanka early, taking out the dangerous Kusal Janith Perera with his first ball. But Tillakaratne Dilshan and Jayawardene saw the new ball off, and once the swing reduced to a bare minimum, both men cut loose. Sri Lanka raced to 37 for 1 in 5 overs.
Dilshan pulled Ashwin for four but holed out to deep square-leg later that over, only for Sangakkara to walk out. When Jadeja came on, Mahela hit him for four and six. Dhoni, to his credit, shuffled his bowlers around quickly, and Raina had Mahela caught at mid-wicket.
With 62 required from 60 balls, India needed to break through, and break through again; but most importantly, they needed to see Sangakkara out of their way.
But that never happened, for however potent the Indian spinners may have been, they were no match for a rampant Sangakkara out on a mission. There were a couple of quiet overs, and Mishra had Lahiru Thirimanne stumped, but so serene was Sangakkara’s presence at the crease that Sri Lanka never looked under any sort of pressure.
Sri Lanka needed 47 from 36 balls. India perhaps sniffed a chance at that point, for two wickets would have brought them back into the match. Instead, Thisara lofted Mishra over long-on, and Sanga leg-glanced him past fine-leg. He followed it with another leg-glance, this time off Ashwin, before unleashing the trademark lofted cover-drive off Mishra.
22 from 22, the target read; and Thisara lofted Mishra into the stands over long-on. Rahane dropped a difficult chance the next ball. And with three overs left, Sri Lanka needed a mere 12.
The end came swiftly: Ashwin’s first ball found the edge but bisected Dhoni and slip; the second ball, an bottom-edged boundary past fine-leg, brought up his fifty; and a dot and a single later, Thisara cleared the ground to finish off the job started by Malinga.
And Malinga kissed the trophy.
Brief scores:
India 130 for 4 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 77) lost to Sri Lanka 134 for 4 in 17.5 overs (Kumar Sangakkara 52*) by 6 wickets with 13 balls to spare.
Man of the Match: Kumar Sangakkara
Man of the Series: Virat Kohli.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry and CricLife. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
