The widest field the tournament ever had
Sixteen teams went to Bangladesh in March 2014, the largest field the men's World Twenty20 has ever assembled. Eight of them, the associates and the lower-ranked full members, had to survive a first round before the tournament proper began. That first round produced most of the fortnight's best stories. Nepal and Hong Kong were playing their first Twenty20 internationals; the United Arab Emirates had never played one either. Bangladesh, the hosts, had been placed in that qualifying group and lost to Hong Kong by two wickets in Chittagong, the first international win Hong Kong had ever recorded. The Netherlands got through by the narrowest arithmetic imaginable. Needing to beat Ireland inside 14.2 overs to pass them on net run rate, they chased 190 in 13.5.
Thirty-nine all out, and then eighty-eight
The Super 10 punished them at once. Sri Lanka bowled the Dutch out for 39, still the lowest total in a Twenty20 international, and the whole match was over inside sixteen overs of cricket. Yet the same side, in its last group game, dismissed England for 88 and won by 45. England had beaten Sri Lanka four days earlier off Alex Hales' unbeaten 116; they flew home to an inquest instead.
India won all four of their Super 10 matches without ever looking troubled, Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra strangling the middle overs while Virat Kohli scored heavily enough to finish the tournament with 319 runs. South Africa edged two thrillers by two runs and three runs. Rangana Herath, brought in for a single match against New Zealand, took 5 for 3 and had them out for 60.
Sangakkara, finally
Sri Lanka had lost the 2009 and 2012 finals, and there was a familiar shape to this one for a while. Lasith Malinga won the toss in a rain-delayed final and fielded. Kohli made 77 from 58 and was run out off the last ball of the innings, by which point India were 130 for 4 and nobody else had passed 30. It was a total Sri Lanka could walk down rather than chase.
Kumar Sangakkara came in at 41 for 2 in his final Twenty20 international and made 52 not out from 35 balls. Thisara Perera hit three sixes in fourteen deliveries at the other end. Sri Lanka got there with thirteen balls to spare and Sangakkara took the match award.
Afterwards
It was Sri Lanka's first World Twenty20 and only their second global title, eighteen years on from 1996. Sangakkara and Jayawardene both retired from the format that night, Jayawardene having become the first man to pass a thousand runs in the competition. This was also the first men's edition played under the Decision Review System, a change that quietly altered how captains defended a total. For Sri Lanka it closed a run of near misses that had gone on long enough to look like a curse, and it did so in the last match two of their greatest batsmen ever played in the format.