Saturday, June 20, 2009

Sri Lanka through to the finals


Now that’s what you call a team effort! Dilshan, Mendis, Murli, Matthews, Malinga everybody chipping in with something. Sri Lanka defeated West Indies comprehensively to enter in the finals of ICC World T20. Now they will face Pakistan who is equally looking good.

Batting first, Sri Lanka posted a challenging total (considering their bowling & fielding) of 159, thanks to an unbeaten 96* by Tilakratne Dilshan. Dilshan played superb strokes all over the ground & was uncontrollable. The West Indian bowlers bowled well till the 16th over, but Dilshan made most of the last four overs.

West Indies were rocked by Angelo Matthews, the young sensation for the Sri Lankans, taking three wickets in his first over. Xavier Marshall, Lendl Simmons & Dwayne Bravo were his dismissals; all of them went for Duck. They had a good partnership between Shivnarine Chanderpaul & Chris Gayle, but just when they looked settled, wickets started to tumble at the other end. Gayle was the lone survivor in the Lankan storm. He scored 63* out of the team total of 101 & carried his bat. He tried very hard to take his team through but there was some superb bowling from Ajantha Mendis & Mutthiah Murlitharan in the middle overs, which just didn’t allow the West Indians to free their arms. The ‘M’ factor again came to haunt the West Indies, just like the league game.

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