Yuvraj's 21-ball struggle, and SL's death bowling

Stats highlights from Sri Lanka's World T20 triumph at Mirpur

06-Apr-2014

Yuvraj Singh struggled to find his touch, India v Sri Lanka, final, World T20, Mirpur, April 6, 2014

Sri Lanka's six-wicket win was their first triumph in the final of a world event in five attempts since the 1996 World Cup. Since then, Sri Lanka had ended up on the losing side in the finals of the 2007 ODI World Cup, 2009 World T20, 2011 ODI World Cup and the 2012 World T20, before winning this World T20.

Sri Lanka have been the most consistent team in the World T20s, having made it to four semi-finals and three finals. They are also the most consistent T20I team since the last World T20, having lost only four of the 18 T20Is they have played since then. Their win-loss ratio of 3.25 is the best in this period.

Kumar Sangakkara won the Man-of-the-Match award for his 35-ball 52 - his third such award in T20Is. This was Sangakkara's eighth fifty in T20Is and his third against India. Sangakkara has scored 235 runs against India at an average of 78.33. His strike-rate of 172.8 against India is significantly better than his overall T20I strike rate of 119.6. Sangakkara finished his T20I career as the fifth-highest run-scorer in the format, having made 1382 runs at 31.40.

Mahela Jayawardene became the first batsman to score 1000 runs in the World T20. Mahela finished with 1016 runs at an average of 39.07 and a strike rate of 134.7, including one hundred and six fifties. He is also the second-highest run-scorer in T20Is, with 1493 runs at an average of 31.76 and a strike rate of 133.2, including one hundred and nine fifties.

The six-wicket defeat ended what was India's longest winning streak in T20Is - of seven matches -, only one short of the eight consecutive wins achieved by England and Ireland, which is the longest by any team.

India's batsmen could hit only 12 boundaries (eight fours and four sixes) - with Virat Kohli hitting nine of them - in their innings, which equaled the lowest they have hit in the first innings of a T20I from 20 overs. The other such instance came against Pakistan in Bangalore in 2012, when they hit nine fours and three sixes from 20 overs.

Kohli's 58-ball 77 in this match was his eighth fifty in T20Is and his second-highest score. This was Kohli's third fifty batting first, in 14 innings. He averages 29.28 when batting first, as opposed to his average of 82.66 while chasing.

Kohli scored 319 runs in this World T20 at an average of 106.33 - the highest any batsman has scored in a World T20, and only the third time a batsman has scored 300-plus in the tournament. Tillakaratne Dilshan had scored 317 runs at 52.83 in the 2009 World T20, which was the previous highest aggregate made by any batsman in a World T20. Kohli is also only the second batsman to hit four fifty-plus scores in a World T20. Matthew Hayden - who hit four fifties in the 2007 World Cup - was the other batsman.

India's batsmen struggled to score quickly against Sri Lanka's bowlers and ended up making only 130 in spite of losing just four wickets. This is the lowest score made by any team for the loss of just four wickets from 20 overs in T20Is. The previous lowest was Pakistan's 126 against England in 2010.

India's total was also the lowest by a team batting first in a World T20 final. The previous lowest was 137 by West Indies against the same opposition in the last World T20.

Sri Lanka bowlers gave away just 19 runs from the last four overs - the second lowest conceded by a team against India in the last four overs of a T20I. The lowest any team has conceded in the last four overs against India is 18 runs - by Pakistan in Bangalore in 2012.

Yuvraj Singh's 21-ball struggle at the crease was the third-slowest T20I innings of 20 balls or more by an India batsman. The two slowest innings by an India batsman have both been played by MS Dhoni, with his 27-ball 9 against Australia at the MCG in 2008 being the slowest. Yuvraj, however, has also played one of the top three fastest innings of 20 balls or more by an India batsman.

Sri Lanka India India vs Sri Lanka World T20

Shiva Jayaraman is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com