Pallekele: Sri Lanka defeated West Indies in Group 1 encounter In Super Eights of ongoing ICC T20 World Cup. Sri Lanka with the win, now have two wins from two matches and are in a very good position to qualify for the semifinals.
West Indies captain Darren Sammy once again won the toss and elected to bat first. West Indies in the earlier two matches got off to brilliant starts, but found things difficult against some steady bowling from Sri Lankan medium pacers. Johnson Charles who was very impressive against England got out in the fifth over with the score only at 16. In the next over, West Indies lost their biggest player in the form of Chris Gayle, Gayle trying to cut Kulasekara got out behind the wicket for an individual score of two runs from nine balls.
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Brief Score:
West Indies: 129/5 (Samuels 50, Bravo 40, Ajantha Mendis 2-12)
Sri Lanka: 130/1 in 15.2 overs (Jayawardene 65*, Sangakkara 39*, Rampaul 1-39)
{/niftybox}Marlon Samuels (50) and Dwayne Bravo (40) than steadied things for West Indies but were never allowed to break free. Ajantha Mendis got Bravo out in the 15th over and got dangerous Pollard out in his next over. West Indies would have hoped for a good finish, but Lasith Malinga had other ideas. West Indies could only post 129 runs in their allotted quota of 20 overs.
In reply, Sri Lanka got off to a descent start, with both Mahela Jayawardene and TM Dilshan hitting some crispy shots. Sri Lanka lost their first wicket in the form of Dilshan who was caught behind the wicket on a rising Rampaul delivery.
Kumar Sangakkara than walked into bat and he along with his captain took the innings forward. Both Jayawardene and Sangakkara showed why they are among world’s best hitting some cracking shots both on the front and the back-foot.
Jayawardene got to his fifty in quick time and ensured that Sri Lanka reach the target with more than four overs to spare.
By Indian Sports News Network
