ICC T20 World Cup 2012: West Indies Win by 36 Runs at Colombo — Marlon Samuels' 78 Off 56 Wins Player of the Match

West Indies won the ICC T20 World Cup 2012 on 7 October 2012 at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka, defeating hosts Sri Lanka by 36 runs. West Indies scored 137/6 in 20 overs; Sri Lanka were bowled out for 101 in 18.4 overs in reply. Marlon Samuels scored 78 off 56 balls — hitting 3 fours and 6 sixes — as Player of the Match. Darren Sammy captained West Indies; Mahela Jayawardene captained Sri Lanka. Shane Watson (Australia) won Player of the Tournament with 249 runs and 11 wickets, despite Australia not reaching the final.

Marlon Samuels 78 Off 56 Balls: The Innings That Built West Indies' 137

Marlon Samuels' 78 off 56 balls — 3 fours and 6 sixes — was the batting performance that gave West Indies their 137/6 total and made their eventual 36-run win possible. Samuels, the Jamaican right-handed batter whose T20 batting evolved to suit the format's power-hitting demands, provided the innings substance that West Indies' 137/6 required on a Colombo pitch in T20 World Cup knockout conditions. Sri Lanka's chase reaching only 101 all out in 18.4 overs — 36 runs short of West Indies' total — reflected both the quality of the West Indies bowling (across all 20 overs, dismissing Sri Lanka for 101 despite Sri Lanka being the hosts playing on a home ground they knew well) and the 137/6 being ultimately above what Sri Lanka's batting could chase.

Darren Sammy's West Indies: Caribbean T20 Excellence at the Tournament's Peak

Darren Sammy captaining West Indies to the 2012 ICC T20 World Cup title at Colombo — the first T20 World Cup won by a non-Asian team on Asian soil — gave the Caribbean captain his most significant international trophy. Sammy, the Saint Lucian right-arm fast-medium bowling all-rounder who had become West Indies' T20 captain during a difficult period for Caribbean cricket, led a team that combined explosive batters (Samuels 78, Chris Gayle across the tournament) with the bowling resources that dismissed Sri Lanka for 101 in a T20 World Cup final. West Indies winning at R. Premadasa Stadium — in Sri Lanka's own capital city, in a tournament the hosts had used home conditions to reach the final — was the result that Sammy's captaincy produced against the tournament's most prepared team.

ICC T20 World Cup 2012 in Context

The ICC T20 World Cup 2012 — held in Sri Lanka — was the fourth edition of the competition. West Indies winning in Colombo gave the Caribbean nation their first ICC T20 World Cup title (they would win again in 2016 and 2024, giving them three T20 World Cup titles — the joint-most alongside England). Sri Lanka, despite home advantage, being bowled out for 101 in the final reflected the West Indies bowling quality in a format where high-quality pace bowling — Dwayne Bravo, Ravi Rampaul, Darren Sammy himself — combined with the batting explosiveness that Marlon Samuels' 78 off 56 exemplified. The 2012 final's 36-run margin gave West Indies their most emphatic T20 World Cup final result across their three title wins.