Jayawardene led Sri Lanka to the final of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 against the West Indies on home turf. Having restricted the Windies to 137/6, Sri Lanka were steadily making progress in chasing down the target with Jayawardene well set. Halfway through their innings, captain Jayawardene noticed that the West Indies were slightly ahead on Duckworth/Lewis with a hint of rain in the air. He subsequently decided to accelerate the innings, but this only triggered a collapse. The rain never came and Sri Lanka fell a long way short of the target. He resigned as Sri Lanka's T20 captain after the match and in 2014 also announced his retirement from T20 cricket. He was selected in the 2nd XI of the 2014 ICC World T20 Cup by Cricinfo.