'We're going to live this moment forever' - Sammy

The West Indies celebrations after the final wicket were interrupted only by the post-match presentation, during which the captain Darren Sammy singled out his team's determination to fight to the finish as the key factor in helping them win their first world championship since the World Cup of 1979.

"For the last two years we've shown the never-say-die attitude, but we haven't had the results," Sammy said. "This moment we're going to live forever. The team has been through a lot in the last two years, for the last ten years. The mission was to win the T20 World Cup, the belief we left the Caribbean with has pulled us through. Today we were down and out but our never-say-die attitude came out.

"Thank you to everyone who supported us. The tournament is for the fans. The love we felt from the Sri Lankan people is tremendous and we want to thank them for that. This hopefully will be the beginning of things to come. Hopefully this team will go on."

Sammy played an important role in the 36-run win the final, scoring quick runs at the death during West Indies' innings to push the total to a competitive 137. But it was Marlon Samuels who played the decisive knock, reviving his team with a counter-attacking 78 off 56 balls, which not only boosted what was a crawling run-rate, but made possible a score his bowlers could ultimately defend. The feature of Samuels' innings was five sixes off Lasith Malinga.

"Put in a lot of hard work. To Jamaica, to the West Indies. Can't explain how much it means to me," Samuels, who had lost two years to a ban related to links with an Indian bookmaker, said after being named Man of the Match. "They beat us twice, I tell Chris [Gayle] we can't lose thrice. The wicket was a bit slow, today was a different mindset, I decided to attack Malinga, their best bowler and it paid off. We are working together as a unit. Future-wise I think West Indies are going to do well, even in Test cricket. Test cricket is the best cricket."

The game ended in despair for Sri Lanka, the hosts, who dominated the first half of the West Indies innings. Mahela Jayawardene kept his team on track in the first half of the chase, but there was no recovering from a collapse that began with the fall of his partner Kumar Sangakkara in the 10th over. They ended up losing nine for 53.

"I think the first ten overs were fantastic, they knew they had to go for it. A couple of mistakes on the field and three-four bad overs shifted the momentum," Jayawardene, who resigned as T20 captain after the defeat, said. "We're disappointed, a full house. A couple of overs they went after us, against our best bowlers. I backed my No. 1 bowler to deliver but Marlon batted very well.

"They bowled really well, we just needed to keep the pressure on which we didn't. We need to sit down, have a good chat, and move on."