New Delhi: The Twenty 20 World Cup, having taken off in an exhilaratingly dramatic fashion in 2007 in South Africa and travelled to England and West Indies in the years that followed, finally made way to cricket’s nerve centre — Asia — in 2012 and remained here for three consecutive editions. It’s no coincidence that the growth of the T20 format is inextricably linked to the elite competition being played in Asia, although multiple T20 leagues certainly have a role to play.
Back in 2014, the shortest format was just about coming out of its shell with critics and purists seeing little value in it. Teams went with batters who would build their innings in the traditional 50-over template, and the role of anchor(s) was pivotal to teams achieving the par scores. The 2014 edition of T20 World Cup reflected all of that and then some more. It saw the arrival of Virat Kohli on the ICC stage, finishing the tournament as the highest scorer as well as being adjudged the Player of the Tournament.
A few months on, he would be a walking wicket against the red ball genius of James Anderson and Stuart Broad in England before redeeming himself spectacularly in the Australian summer, but as far as white-ball cricket goes, this was the stage where Kohli, for the first of the many times in his career, truly owned the show. This was also the tournament that saw the rare convergence of the two extremes of elite sport — agony and ecstasy — in a final to remember.
Demolished by Australia in 2007, denied by India in 2011, thwarted by Pakistan in 2009, and stunned by West Indies in 2012, Sri Lanka’s imperfect tryst with an ICC trophy reached a perfect crescendo on the sweaty, musty April night in Dhaka when they defeated India by six wickets. Poetically enough, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, two men who had seen their team lose all those four ICC finals, were still around when Sri Lanka ended their 18-year wait for an ICC trophy.
Elite sport can be a brutal place. Ask Yuvraj Singh. hero of India’s title runs in 2007 and 2011. He made a heroic comeback from cancer but stuttered his way to a 21-ball 11 in the final as Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara nailed their wide yorkers. Yuvraj, sent ahead of Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni for his big-hitting prowess, failed to make a connection. It was the humbling of a giant, the kind that only sport can provide.
Stuck at the other end, a young Kohli desperately egged on his senior. The brick-by-brick dismantling sucked out the momentum from India’s innings who stuttered to a below par 130/4 despite a lone hand from Kohli who made 77 off 58 deliveries.
Sri Lanka didn’t have the best of starts, losing openers Kusal Perera and Tillakaratne Dilshan inside the Powerplay. The old firm of Jayawardene and Sangakkara, having batted together since their school days, then joined forces to all but shut the door on Indians.
Dhoni, a master tactician himself, threw everything in his arsenal. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin kept India in the hunt, but nothing India came up with could deter the resolve of Sri Lanka. Jayawardene and Lahiru Thirimanne fell even as Sri Lanka closed in, but Thisara Perera hit three sixes in his 14-ball 23* to take them over the line in the dramatic, nervy slow-burn spectacle.
Sangakkara and Jayawardene retired from T20Is on a high, and within a year, the two greats of Sri Lankan cricket would also announce their retirement from 50-over cricket. The win remains their only ICC title — it would have been a travesty had they gone without winning one.
T20 cricket, as further editions of the World Cup would show, evolved with teams beginning to blood in bold, big-hitting talent. Kohli would go on to be an all-season white-ball run-machine, and T20 cricket would take a decisive turn by the time the 2016 edition arrived.
