LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed England's cricketers after they won their first major one-day title in a seven-wicket victory over Australia in Sunday's World Twenty20 final.
"Congratulations to (captain) Paul Collingwood and the England Twenty20 team on becoming world champions for the first time with a magnificent victory over Australia," he said.
"Let's hope this marks the start of a great summer of sport for England."
Sport and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson added: "I'm absolutely delighted England have won the World Twenty20.
"They have played exciting and intelligent cricket and are worthy winners."
South Africa born batsmen Craig Kieswetter and Kevin Pietersen starred as England stormed to victory at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.
England, chasing 148 to win, after reducing a previously unbeaten Australian side at this tournament to eight for three, saw Kieswetter (63) and Pietersen (47) put on 111 for the second wicket at the Kensington Oval.
They eventually won with three overs to spare when Collingwood struck Shane Watson for a boundary as his side finished on 151 for three.
have defeated  in the final of the  to win the tournament. England won by 7 wickets at the , , Barbados to lift the World Cup. A 111 run partnership between , the man of the match and , the man of the tournament, helped them in chasing down the target of 148 runs set by Australia.

England won the toss and opted to . Australia scored 147 runs, losing 6 wickets in their twenty overs.  was the top scorer, getting 59 runs. Australia scored only 47 runs for 4 wickets in their first ten overs. David Hussey and  added 22 runs in the thirteenth over, thus helping their team to get to 147 for 6 in their innings. For England, Ryan Sidebottom took two wickets for 26 runs in four overs.

Early in England's innings,  of Australia took the wicket of  of England, when the latter was caught by David Hussey at mid-wicket.  of England came when Lumb got out, and helped England to reach 44 runs in the six  overs. The partnership between Pietersen and Kieswetter helped their team to reach the target of 148 runs in seventeen overs, with three overs in hand.

England captain  told the media  that he thought "belief had been the key." "As soon as we got the squad together, seeing how much power we have in the squad, I know that is all on paper but we could tell that we had a lot of potential," he commented.

"I think a lot of credit goes to every single player in the dressing room to have the confidence to go out there and really give it their best shots and have no regrets. I think we have done that throughout the tournament and it has certainly paid off," he noted.

For England, this is the first victory in a  as they had never won a single one-day or T20 World Cup or the  tournament till this victory. In this connection,  Collingwood said: "this is right up there, with the best," adding "to be the first England team to win a 'World Cup' is very special. We knew it was a ."

Meanwhile, Australian captain  admitted his disappointment at the result. He conceded that his performance was poor, saying, "There's no doubt the selectors will need to have a look at my performances. I certainly know they haven't been up to scratch through this whole tournament and probably in Twenty20 cricket in general. I'm sure the selectors will sit down and have a look and if I'm not the right guy for No 3 and the captaincy then they'll make that decision"

Newly elected UK  David Cameron praised the English team. "Congratulations to Paul Collingwood and the England Twenty20 team on becoming world champions for the first time with a magnificent victory over Australia. Let's hope this marks the start of a great summer of sport for England," he said. 

The   commented: "I'm absolutely delighted England have won the World Twenty20. They have played exciting and intelligent cricket and are worthy winners."

=== Scorecard ===
'''Toss:''' England won, and chose to field first.














'''Fall of wickets:''' 1-2 (Watson, 0.3 ov), 2-7 (Warner, 1.5 ov), 3-8 (Haddin, 2.1 ov), 4-45 (Clarke, 9.2 ov), 5-95 (White, 15.4 ov), 6-142 (DJ Hussey, 19.2 ov)

'''Did not bat:''' Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait, Dirk Nannes




















'''Fall of wickets:'''1-7 (Lumb, 1.5 ov), 2-118 (Pietersen, 13.1 ov), 3-121 (Kieswetter, 14.1 ov)

'''Did not bat:''' Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan, Michael Yardy, Greamme Swann, Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom









'''England:''' , , , , , , , , , , , 

'''Australia:''' , , , , , , , , , , 

'''Man of the match:'''  (England)

'''Umpires:'''  (Pakistan) and  (West Indies)
'''TV Umpire:'''  (New Zealand)
'''Match Referee:'''  (Sri Lanka)
'''Reserve Umpire:'''  (South Africa)