'THIS IS FOR WARNE'

Those with a taste for the confrontational side of cricket will remember that West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels was in the news in January 2013, when in the Big Bash League in Australia, he had an on-field altercation with retired Australian spin wizard Shane Warne.

Warne perhaps has not forgotten that confrontation as he, in his capacity as a commentator, engaged in an extended lambasting of Samuels for the way he got out in the semifinal against India.

Last night it turned out that Samuels, whose rousing innings are in sharp contrast to his sleepy demeanour, intimated to the world exactly what he thinks when he eventually does wake up.

“I woke up this morning with one thing on my mind,” said the Jamaican during his player-of-the-match interview, having guided West Indies to a spectacular last-over win in the World Twenty20 final against England. “Shane Warne has been talking continuously and all I have to say, without talking, is this [the trophy] is for Shane Warne. I talk with my bat and not on the mic.”

He may as well have dropped the mic then, but he didn't have to.