World T20 final won by Sri Lanka

[Gob]

Kumar Sangakkara guided Sri Lanka to a six-wicket victory over India to win the World Twenty20 in Mirpur and end a run of four defeats in global finals.



Sangakkara, playing his final Twenty20 international, scored 52 not out as Sri Lanka chased down 131 in 17.5 overs.

Tight Sri Lanka bowling had limited India to 130-4 despite Virat Kohli's sublime 77 off 58 balls.

Sri Lanka were beaten in the 2007 and 2011 World Cup finals and the 2009 and 2012 World T20 finals.

Sangakkara and veteran team-mate Mahela Jayawardene were involved in all four of those disappointments, and this was a fitting way for both to bow out of international T20 cricket.

Victory was particularly sweet for Sangakkara, who had scored only 19 runs in his previous five innings in the tournament but oversaw a patient run chase that was finished off in style when Thisara Perera clubbed Ravichandran Ashwin for his third six.

World Cup and Champions Trophy winners India were hoping to become the first team to hold all three limited-overs trophies.

But their quest was undermined by a disappointing batting performance that stalled badly after Rohit Sharma drove to short extra cover in the 11th over for 29 to break a second-wicket partnership of 60 with Kohli.

Yuvraj Singh, so often a destructive batsman in the shorter forms of the game, looked horribly out of touch as he scratched around for 11 off 21 balls.

With Kohli starved of the strike, the innings lost all momentum and even Mahendra Dhoni could add only four from seven balls after Yuvraj's tame lob to long-off finally brought the captain to the crease in the penultimate over.

World Twenty20 finals

2007: India beat Pakistan by five runs

2009: Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets

2010: England beat Australia by seven wickets

2012: West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 36 runs

2014: Sri Lanka beat India by six wickets

The final four overs, in which Kohli faced eight balls, yielded just 19 runs before the tournament's leading run-scorer was run out trying to force a second from the last ball of the innings.

There was a wicket apiece for Nuwan Kulasekara, Angelo Mathews and Rangana Herath as not one of Sri Lanka's five bowlers conceded more than 29 runs from four overs.

India took wickets with enough regularity to keep the match alive and evoke memories of the 2012 final, when Sri Lanka were bowled out for 101 in pursuit of West Indies' modest 137-6.

Kusal Perera sliced Mohit Sharma to mid-off in the second over and Tillakaratne Dilshan holed out to Kohli at deep square leg for 18.

Jayawardene swiped Suresh Raina to midwicket to depart for 24 and, when Lahiru Thirimanne nicked Amit Mishra to wicketkeeper Dhoni, Sri Lanka were wobbling on 78-4.

But Perera announced his intent by hitting Mishra over long-on for a huge six and followed up with another maximum in the leg-spinner's next over.

Sangakkara thrashed consecutive fours off Ashwin to reach his half-century and take Sri Lanka to within four runs of the title.

Perera danced down the track to apply the perfect finish and spark jubilant scenes among the Sri Lanka players and fans.

[MajGenl.Meade]

It looked for a moment as 3rd and 4th wickets fell that Sri Lanka were handing India a glimmer of hope but in the end their lack of a vicious finisher (i.e. An Indian Malingerer) put paid to their chances. A reasonably good match but not nearly as much fun as watching Everton hand Arsenal a whacking. That never gets old. Now, OTOH a bit of debacle in the Ladies' final.....

[Lord Jim]

[Beer Sponge]

I assume you are referring to Baseball, in which case, you are correct, nobody cares. Cricket, however, is much more interesting.

[Lord Jim]

Q. How do you make a thread about a cricket match that is even less interesting and noteworthy than usual?

A. Make it a thread about a cricket match between Sri Lanka and India....

ETA:

Please be sure to let us know who wins the Djibouti / Tadzhikistan match...

[Big RR]

That's right Jim, it's far more important to see how the Tampa Bay or Arlington (Texas) teams did than those of independent nations (one of them the second most populous nation in the world).

[Lord Jim]

That's right Jim, it's far more important to see how the Tampa Bay or Arlington (Texas) teams did than those of independent nations (one of them the second most populous nation in the world).

Exactly.

ETA:

Though I have to say I don't really agree with your choice of teams...

I care almost as little about their fortunes as I do about the Sri Lankan Cricket Team...

The Nationals or The Giants on the other hand; no contest....

[Gob]

Yer right Jim, a minority interest sport, (i.e. one of them foreign fuckers.)

DUBAI: Television coverage of the 2014 World Twenty20 in Bangladesh is set to break all previous International Cricket Council (ICC) events' broadcast records, the sport's world governing body claimed on Friday.

That coverage, produced and distributed by the ICC's global media rights partner and host broadcaster, Star Sports, will have a potential reach of more than 1.8 billion viewers with live pictures shown by 29 broadcasters - both figures the highest ever for an ICC event, the world body said in a statement.

And it will be shown in more than 20 languages with pictures going across Europe via Eurosport and as far as Norway, Nepal, Afghanistan and the Pacific Islands.

[Lord Jim]

will have a potential reach of more than 1.8 billion viewers

Ah yes, but as the great boxer Joe Louis' manager once told a promoter who was bragging about how many seats he had in an arena where he wanted to set up a fight for Louis:

"It doesn't matter how many seats you have. It's how many rear ends you've got sittin' in those seats that counts."

Totaling up all the people with TV access in the countries where it's broadcast doesn't tell you a whole lot, (and in this case about a billion of them were in India alone...)

ETA:

While it’s strictly played in the United States with a huge majority of the participants sporting American passports, the Super Bowl has long been a global event celebrated by hundreds of countries.

According to the NFL, FOX’s broadcast will reach 198 countries and territories in more than 25 languages. Media from 24 countries will provide on-site coverage, and more than 100 stations are broadcasting live from Radio Row at the Super Bowl Media Center in New York’s Times Square.

http://www.ibtimes.com/super-bowl-2014- ... me-1551791