ICC T20 World Cup 2014: Sri Lanka's First T20 Title — Malinga and Sangakkara
The ICC World Twenty20 2014 was the fifth T20 World Cup, hosted in Bangladesh from 16 March to 6 April 2014. Sri Lanka defeated India by 6 wickets in the final at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka on 6 April 2014. India scored 130/4 — the lowest first-innings total by a finalist in T20 WC history. Sri Lanka chased 131/4 with Kumar Sangakkara scoring 52* from 35 balls. Lasith Malinga took 3/26 in India's innings. Sri Lanka became the first Asian team to win the T20 World Cup in Asia. Virat Kohli scored 319 runs in the tournament (Player of the Tournament) but India could only manage 130 batting first in the final. Kumar Sangakkara (519 runs) and Mahela Jayawardene (both captaincy and batting) retired from T20 internationals after the final.
The ICC World Twenty20 2014 was the fifth T20 World Cup, hosted in Bangladesh from 16 March to 6 April 2014. Sixteen nations participated in a Super 10s format. Sri Lanka defeated India by 6 wickets in the final at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka — becoming the first Asian team to win the T20 World Cup on Asian soil and Sri Lanka's only ICC major title in T20 cricket.
The Final: Malinga's Bowling and Sri Lanka's Chase
India, batting first in the final, scored 130/4 from 20 overs — the lowest first-innings total by a finalist in T20 World Cup history. Lasith Malinga took 3/26, including the wickets of Virat Kohli (77 from 58 balls in the semi-final, 0 in the final) and Rohit Sharma. The surface at Mirpur was slow and low, offering Sri Lanka's spinners significant assistance; India's top order struggled against disciplined bowling. Sri Lanka began their chase with Tillakaratne Dilshan scoring 33. Kumar Sangakkara anchored the run chase with 52* from 35 balls, hitting 3 sixes. Sri Lanka reached 131/4 with 13 balls remaining.
Virat Kohli: Player of the Tournament in a Losing Side
Virat Kohli scored 319 runs in the 2014 T20 World Cup at an average of 106.33 — the most runs in the tournament and the highest average by any batsman with 200+ runs. He scored centuries (or 77+) in multiple matches during the group stage and semi-final. In the final, he scored 77* but India were bowled out for 130 — a score below the total Kohli's innings alone had reached before wickets fell at the other end. Kohli was named Player of the Tournament. It is one of cricket's most notable examples of individual brilliance in a losing team's campaign — 319 runs that were rendered insufficient by the team's collective batting fragility, particularly in the final.
Frequently asked questions
How does Lasith Malinga's bowling action produce reverse swing and what made his yorker so difficult to counter in T20 cricket specifically?
Lasith Malinga's bowling action — a low, round-arm sling action releasing the ball from below shoulder height — is unusual in first-class cricket and produces a different trajectory from conventional over-the-top deliveries. The ball approaches the batsman on a flatter plane than an over-the-arm delivery of the same speed, meaning it appears to stay lower in its trajectory and reach the batsman's feet faster. His primary T20 weapon is the low full-length yorker: a ball aimed at the batsman's feet that uses the flat trajectory to arrive at ankle height. In T20 cricket, this is especially difficult to counter because the batsman's default T20 shot is the lofted drive, which requires a high front-foot position; a yorker arriving at ankle height from Malinga's flat trajectory catches the batsman halfway through the foot-lift movement, when they cannot drive (ball too full), cannot pull (ball too full), and cannot play defensively (ball too fast and too low). His slower ball yorker — indistinguishable from the fast yorker for the first half of its trajectory — compounds the problem because the batsman cannot adjust their timing downward fast enough. In the 2014 final, India's batsmen knew Malinga's primary weapon was the yorker and still could not negate it consistently: they were caught between playing for the yorker (which required keeping the bat close to the feet) and pre-meditated big shots (which required moving the feet away from the stumps). The result — 130/4 — reflected the success of his plan.