West Indies had a convincing victory over Sri Lanka in the final game, despite the latter having a huge home-field advantage.

West Indies won the toss and chose to bat first. This was not unexpected since batting first has turned out to be a good thing in this tournament. But the Sri Lankan bowlers and fielders, who had been a little sloppy in their semi-final game against Pakistan, were brilliant, especially early on in the game where they tied up the West India batsmen in knots, especially the dangerous Chris Gayle who had destroyed the Australians in their semi-final game.

Fortunately for the West Indies, Marlon Samuels came to the rescue with a great innings of 78 that boosted their final score to 137 in their 20 overs, a respectable score but by no means enough to make them feel confident of winning.

Sri Lanka also got off to a poor start but unfortunately for them, there was no match winning effort from any of their batsmen to turn the game around. The West Indies also excelled with their bowling and fielding and dismissed the Sri Lankans for a low score of 101 in the 19th over.

Naturally I am disappointed that Sri Lanka lost. After winning the 50-over World Cup one-day international tournament in 1996, they made the finals of four tournaments only to have the final game slip away from them, losing to Australia in 2007, India in 2011, and in the Twenty20 format losing to Pakistan in 2009 and now this time, so there must be a great deal of disappointment among the many cricket-mad fans in the country.

On the other hand, from the days of my boyhood I have always had a soft spot for the West Indies and if I had to pick Sri Lanka to lose to any team, I would choose them. After being in the wilderness for some years, this victory may give their spirits a boost and bring them back to being the cricket power they once were.