The finals of the World T20 Cricket Cups were played today. I wasn’t able to watch live as I was at a conference, but I did follow along as best I could on my phone. The ladies game was a cracker. It came right down to the final ball with England needing 6 to beat Australia (US pals, that’s equivalent to needing 4 runs to win with the bases loaded but being down to your last out and on a full count). Sadly we didn’t get it, so well played Australia and we’ll look forward to a rematch next year.

As for the men, there was less immediate interest as the finalists were Sri Lanka and West Indies. However, the lads from the Caribbean are everyone’s second favorite side because of the joy, enthusiasm and flair that they bring to the game (rather like Brazil is everyone’s second favorite soccer team, except in Argentina). West Indies won the toss and elected to bat. They got off to a dreadful start. Their star batsman, Chris Gayle, was out for 3. Halfway through their innings they were 32-2 and in desperate trouble. But a sparking 78 off 56 balls by Marlon Samuels dragged them back from the brink and helped reach a final total of 137. In contrast Sri Lanka were 51/2 at their half way point, but collapsed against the spin of Sunil Narine and were all out for 101.

The full scorecard is here, and for those of you who don’t understand the stats, here’s the start of what I expect will be a very long party.