COLOMBO, Oct 7: Marlon Samuels produced a brilliant all-round performance to guide West Indies to a 36-run victory over Sri Lanka in the World Twenty20 final on Sunday.

Samuels hit six sixes and three fours in his 78 off 56 balls to lift West Indies to 137-6 after it was reduced to 87-5. Samuels then bowled a tidy four-over spell of 1-15 as Sri Lanka was bowled out for 101 in 18.4 overs.

Offspinner Sunil Narine grabbed 3-9 from 3.4 overs and captain Darren Sammy picked up 2-6 in two overs with Sri Lanka losing its way through the innings to the despair of 35,000 home fans at R. Premadasa Stadium.

Ajantha Mendis took 4-12 for Sri Lanka and finished the tournament as the highest wicket-taker with 15 but still ended up on the losing side as West Indies won its first major title since clinching the Champions Trophy in 2004. “This moment we’re going to live forever,” Sammy said.

“The mission was to win the Twenty20 World Cup and the belief when we left the Caribbean has pulled us through. Today we were down and out but our never say die attitude came out.”

Sri Lanka slipped up in its run chase when seamer Ravi Rampaul had Tillakaratne Dilshan clean bowled off his first delivery in the second over.

“We lost momentum when Dilshan fell,” captain Mahela Jayawardene said.—AP