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They had clapped in the Premadasa media room after Darren Sammy finished his pre-final press conference on Saturday. They clapped in the Premadasa press box on Sunday after West Indies took the last Sri Lankan wicket to win the World Twenty20 2012. They clapped in the Premadasa media room after Sammy finished his post-final press conference. So rare have such occasions been for West Indies cricket after their decline that Sammy called this victory "the best moment for me".

The West Indies captain sauntered into the media room draped in the maroon West Indies cricket flag. He kept the World Twenty20 trophy proudly in front of him on the table. "My trophy is so big I can't see you," he joked with the first questioner.

He spoke about treasuring the achievement for the rest of his life. He was asked whether his performance with both bat and ball in the final was an answer to the critics who had questioned his place in the side all along. He said when even Christ was crucified without fault, he himself was nothing. It was a much-criticised, large-hearted man speaking from his heart, and Sammy didn't hold back tonight.

"We will definitely cherish this moment. I will for sure," Sammy said. "We're going to relive it every day of our lives. This is the best moment for me in any cricket. This here (the trophy) is for the Caribbean people. West Indies fans all over the world have been craving success. I know they're partying from Jamaica down to Guyana. And we know how to party. I think they'll need a lot of bartenders."

Sammy said while the critics had a job to do, he had always believed in playing for the Caribbean people. "The commentators get paid to speak. The media get paid to write stories. I get paid to play cricket," Sammy said. "Critics will always be there. Someone might find something wrong I did today even though we won. That does not worry me. The most important thing is that the team did well.

"And I always say I live my life one way. Christ came to this earth, did nothing wrong and yet was crucified. I'm nowhere close to that man.

"Anybody could have an opinion about me. I like it. My shoulders are broad enough. It's been like that from the time I started cricket. Once I wear this [West Indies] crest (pointing to his shirt), I wear it on my heart. That's what matters. If I turn up and don't have a good day, I suck, I'll come the next day and try and put in a better performance. I don't play for glory. I play for the Caribbean people."

Sammy was asked what had won the game for West Indies, after they had been 32 for 2 at the halfway stage of their innings. He spoke about belief, and he spoke about God. "We have a strong belief in God. He works in mysterious ways. He performs wonders," Sammy said. "Like I kept saying in every press conference, there's a belief we had in the team. Yes, we expected them (Sri Lanka) to give us a good fight and they did.

"Throughout the last year or so, we've been showing that never-say-die attitude, but we've not been winning games. In this tournament, we've won games. Every man believed that whoever was out there could do the job. Today, it was Marlon Samuels and (Dwayne) Bravo steadying the ship. In the end, every run counts. The bowling discipline was just brilliant, and the fielding. I said we needed our A-plus game, this here is proof of it."

After Marlon Samuels' 78 had carried them to 137, Sammy said West Indies believed they had a chance. "The coach was saying that if we get the score we got in Pallekele (129 for 5 against Sri Lanka) on this wicket, we'll win the match," Sammy said. "The momentum we had from our batting carried through to our bowling. It was Dwayne Bravo's birthday, so in the huddle, I gave him the chance to say the last words before we went on the field. He said, 'let's go out there and give it our all. If we do that and play how we can play, these runs are going to be a fighting total'. Ravi (Rampaul) started it off with his first ball, and we never looked back from there.

"We have some of the most experienced Twenty20 players. Once we play the way we can, we'll always be a force to reckon with. We didn't brag about it but we believed we could go out there and take it one game at a time. I said hurdle by hurdle, and today was the final one. The coach said we're climbing to the top of a mountain, and that's where the prize is. We've got to go and take it. Today, we did that. We had different persons coming up with performances in different matches. The team has gelled well in this tournament. Signs of progress have been there, but this is the icing on the cake."

There have been questions raised about the unity of the squad in the past, and the board and the players have had numerous disputes, but Sammy hoped this victory could be the start of something new for West Indies cricket. "This is the moment here," he said. "Issues done and buried. Twenty20 World Cup, 2012, Sri Lanka - West Indies champion."

And Sammy held the trophy up. And there was another round of applause.

West Indies 205 for 4 (Gayle 75*, Pollard 38) beat Australia 131 (Bailey 63, Rampaul 3-16) by 74 runs

So lopsided was West Indies' obliteration of Australia in the second semi-final of the World Twenty20, the victors had near enough to 13 overs to bask in their looming progress to the final against Sri Lanka.

Matthew Wade's departure in the eighth over of Australia's reply to 205 for 4 left George Bailey's team at a forlorn 43 for 6, their campaign collapsing in a few fevered minutes. Bailey was left to offer his team's last gesture of defiance, a breathless 63 from 29 balls, but it served only to narrow the margin.

That they were chasing such a tall tally was down to Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard. Gayle was starved of the strike early and later battled an apparent muscle strain, but in between produced an innings of controlled aggression that helped foster a trio of partnerships with Pollard, Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo. Pollard clumped three of four sixes to be brutalised from Xavier Doherty's final over of the innings, a sequence that broke Australian spirits.

This much was clear in the early overs of the chase, the only blow landed by any batsman other than Bailey were the verbal ones delivered by David Warner before the innings had even begun. Australia entered the tournament resolved to fight with Test match zeal for the T20 trophy, but they have ultimately exited the event at an earlier stage than Michael Clarke's team had done at the 2010 tournament in the Caribbean.

Darren Sammy's team have some concerns over Gayle's fitness, and will be a little perturbed to have lost focus momentarily during Bailey's rearguard, but will otherwise enter the final with the confidence earned from a thumping result. West Indies' bowlers showed plenty of wit and variation on a dry surface, Ravi Rampaul catching the eye by using the short ball to make Australia's belatedly included David Hussey look nobody's idea of a saviour.

Warner and Shane Watson - until a few days ago the prohibitive favourite to be the Player of the Tournament - were both winkled out by the flat leg spin of Samuel Badree. Warner's dismissal required video evidence to confirm that the stumps had been flicked after the batsman missed a cut shot, but there was no room for doubt about Watson's exit, losing his leg stump as he tried to pull a skidder. What followed would confirm the suspicion, maintained all tournament, that Australia's batting fell away beneath them.

Michael Hussey had performed a miracle to get Australia through their semi-final against Pakistan in 2010, but this time skied Samuels having made just 18. Cameron White glanced Rampaul into the gloves of Denesh Ramdin, and David Hussey's two deliveries in the tournament provided a reminder that his technique against the short ball is some way short of international standard, irrespective of a handsome record in all domestic formats.

Bailey's subsequent counter-attack seemed driven by frustration as much as anything, and may serve at least to shore up his place as a batsman in Australia's limited-overs plans for the future. But the final margin will stick uncomfortably in the gullet of Bailey and his entire squad, as their tournament ended with a disheartening whimper.

Such a scenario had seemed remote when West Indies made a sedate start on a fair surface. Gayle began carefully, wary of the new ball swing on offer for Mitchell Starc, and watched from the other end as Johnson Charles heaved without foot movement and edged behind.

The non-striker's end was the vantage point from which Gayle watched an inordinate amount of deliveries, as Australia's bowlers and fielders did their best to keep him away from the batting crease. His brief encounters with Doherty were satisfying enough, but Brad Hogg was a little more successful in keeping the runs down with his indecipherable googlies.

By the time 10 overs had elapsed Gayle had faced only 18 balls, while Samuels and Dwayne Bravo, chosen ahead of his brother Darren, took a greater share. Samuels managed a quartet of clean blows before being outsmarted by Pat Cummins and bowled by a slower ball. Bravo soaked up plenty of dot balls but summoned a six whenever he was becalmed.

Australian sloppiness also helped West Indies keep momentum. Wade missed a full toss to allow four byes, Starc swung one delivery down the legside for five wides, and both Hussey brothers allowed bouncing shots to burst through their hands on the boundary.

The innings still required a supercharge, and it arrived in the 15th over, delivered by Hussey. Gayle sent one delivery into the stratosphere, and pinched another two boundaries for the over to be worth 19. In the next, Bravo crunched a steepling six but perished to a flatter hit next ball, the partnership ending at 83 from 51 balls.

Pollard offered sound support in the closing overs as Gayle finally enjoyed a greater share of the strike, though he was by this time clearly hampered by an apparent abdominal strain. It mattered little in the final over, however, as Gayle slammed a full toss for six first ball then left Pollard to collar three more. Pollard's dismissal from the final ball of the innings was scant consolation for Doherty, and Bailey will wonder at length whether he might have handed the ball to someone else.

Sri Lanka 139 for 4 (Jayawardene 42, Dilshan 35) beat Pakistan 123 for 7 (Hafeez 42, Herath 3-25) by 16 runs

On a crumbling, turning, brute of a pitch by Twenty20 standards, Mahela Jayawardene responded with a T20-size classic. His 42 off 36, as delightful as it was delicate, proved to be the difference between the two sides in a tight semi-final. It was a bitterly disappointing night for his opposite number: Mohammad Hafeez outmanoeuvred a rampant Kumar Sangakkara in a crucial moment in the first innings, he came back from a horribly slow start to his own innings, but fell on 42 with some way to go for Pakistan.

It was Sangakkara who returned the favour with a superb stumping off a grubber to send Hafeez back with 48 to defend in 35 balls. Hafeez, who had just opened up with an extra-cover drive, a reverse-swept four and a punch through covers, was this close to making this his own night, but it was to be Sri Lanka's, who won their first Twenty20 international at R Premadasa Stadium, in the process successfully adjusting to a third venue in this tournament, the most for any team.

The powdery surface began to explode upon impact by the third over of the first innings. This was no place for average batsmen who stand there and swing from the hip. This would need a quality batsman. On turning tracks, they don't come better than Jayawardene. With the ball turning square at times, he stayed low, swept and reverse-swept often to play with the spinners' rhythm. Tillakaratne Dilshan, his opening partner, seemed to be batting on a different pitch.

It was not just that Jayawardene was sweeping and reversing, it was the range of that shot, able to beat the two square fielders on either side. He connected with four reverse-sweeps, scoring 12. Then there was the regulation sweep and the lap shot. Jayawardene's effort here was reminiscent of his hundred in the semi-final of the 50-over World Cup of 2007. Just when he was running away with this thing, he failed to connect well with a lap off Afridi, giving Pakistan their first wicket.

 That didn't bring them any relief, though. Sangakkara began with a four to midwicket first ball, and later displayed a lovely chip over extra cover. Hafeez was about to get into the game now. Watching Sangakkara move too much around the crease, Hafeez pulled out before a delivery. When he did bowl, he bowled it wide and out of reach of the moving Sangakkara, and prised out a catch in the deep.

Now, with Dilshan looking to break free, Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal bowled three big overs. Gul got the better of Dilshan, who was looking to break free after having been nine off 18 at one point. Ajmal, who conceded 20 off his first two overs, came back with a six-run 19th over. Gul missed his yorkers by the slightest of margins in the last over, Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews took toll of it, and Sri Lanka came out confident of defending 139.

Pakistan never managed any flow to their reply. Imran Nazir swung from the hip. He hit some and missed some before playing on a quick delivery from Ajantha Mendis, making it 31 for 1 after six. Hafeez, having a horror time with the bat, had just begun to recover in company with Nasir Jamshed when an umpiring error turned the game around.

It was a slower offcutter from Mathews from over the stumps, hitting the middle stump of the left-handed Jamshed, but he was given out by Rod Tucker, despite the ball pitching outside the leg stump. In the same over, another offcutter sent Kamran Akmal back. The game had turned. Hafeez now began to swim against the tide. In what was now becoming a contest of the captains, Jayawardene prevailed.

He had brought in Rangana Herath, who is slower in the field than most, but Herath it was who bowled the decisive over. He needed help from Sangakkara, who reacted exceptionally to a shooter, and stumped Hafeez in a flash. Shahid Afridi fell for another golden duck, and those waiting for the Umars, Akmal and Gul, to do something special were willing the lightning to strike twice. It didn't.

Pakistan didn't know until late on Tuesday night whether they'd have to keep their hotel reservations in Colombo for a few more days. But when South Africa's Robin Peterson gloved a ball for a single to take the score to 122 against India, a roar went around the Premadasa. It sounded as though Sri Lanka were playing, but the noise was from a legion of Pakistan fans who were celebrating their team's progress to the semi-finals on net run rate, at India's expense. There wasn't much separating the two sides, but Pakistan were better placed because they got their tactics right and won big against Australia earlier in the evening.

Spin has been Pakistan's strength in this tournament and their captain Mohammad Hafeez used his resources astutely. If that meant giving a rookie spinner the new ball and making the most experienced fast bowler wait till the 18th over, then so be it. The plan was to suffocate the Australians with turn on a sluggish pitch and it worked to such an extent that even Shane Watson had a rare, bad outing. The fielders made Australia's qualifying target of 112 seem distant. As a result, Pakistan play their fourth World Twenty20 semi-final tomorrow, but unlike on Tuesday, they will not have the lion's share of the support.

Sri Lanka are familiar opponents for Pakistan. The hosts were the more dominant side when Pakistan visited in June-July. Sri Lanka looked a more settled side in the Super Eights, making heavy weather of the chase against New Zealand (which culminated in a Super Over victory) and trouncing West Indies and England. The return of Ajantha Mendis has given their spin attack more bite and the seamers, Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara don't offer respite.

It's ironic though that the semi-final is Sri Lanka's first game in Colombo during this World Twenty20. They love playing at the Premadasa and the pitch - not as quick as the ones Pakistan played on in June - should suit their spinners. Sri Lanka haven't had a world title since 1996. They are two games away from breaking the drought, at home.

Form guide
(completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka WWWLW
Pakistan WLWWW

Watch out for

Spin v spin: Opening with spin has become the norm for Pakistan. Will Hafeez adopt the same tactic against Tillakaratne Dilshan and Mahela Jayawardene, who are fluent players of slow bowling? Hafeez, Hasan and Saeed Ajmal conceded only 53 in 12 overs and took all seven wickets that fell against Australia. The two Mendises - Ajantha and Jeevan - have played vital roles for Sri Lanka as well, and they also possess a largely unknown quantity in Akila Dananjaya.

Something's got to give for Shahid Afridi. He has looked a shadow of his old self with the ball, while as a batsman he remains unreliable. His three wickets in the tournament are at odds with his reputation for running through line-ups. Afridi still gets the odd delivery to grip and beat the bat, but Pakistan need more from him. His star value may not have diminished, but his wicket-taking and match-winning ability has.

Team news

Mohammad Hafeez didn't drop any hints of team changes. Pakistan wouldn't want to disturb their winning combination.

Pakistan (probable): 1 Mohammad Hafeez (capt), 2 Imran Nazir, 3 Nasir Jamshed, 4 Kamran Akmal (wk), 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Shahid Afridi, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Raza Hasan.

Mahela Jayawardene stopped short of saying he would captain again after Sri Lanka's smart play-safe approach against England. He didn't hint at team changes either.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Jeevan Mendis, 6 Lahiru Thirimanne, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Akila Dananjaya, 11 Ajantha Mendis