Sri Lankans sink 'Windies' ship to sail into final

Sri Lanka enters the Final of ICC World Twenty20 in grand style after beating West Indies comprehensively by 57 runs. It will be against Final between two Asian teams like last T20 World Cup where India played Pakistan and this time Sri Lanka will take on Pakistan at Lord’s on June 21^st.

T.Dilshan played a brilliant inning of the tournament to guide his team single handedly to par score of 158/5 in their 20 overs. Then a new man with the bowling speed of 80 mph Angelo Mathews picked up three wickets in his very first over of West Indians inning to break the back-bone of West Indies run chase. From 1/3 Bravoin the first over it was almost over for West Indies from there on to achieve the target against the quality bowling attack. Mathews took three for 16 in his four overs.

Chasing the target of 159 runs to win, West Indies inning started disastrously with all top three batters (Xavier Marshall, L.Simmons and D.Bravo) back in the pavilion without troubling the scorer and West Indies scores was 1/3 at the end of first over. Then it was Sri Lankan twin spinners (Murali and Mendis) who done the rest of the damage to West Indian innings by picking up five wickets in between them and conceded just 38 runs in the total eight overs bowled.

Chris Gayle who remained unbeaten on 63 runs of 50 balls was a single batsman who got pass double figure mark. Next highest scorer for West Indies was innings extra with 11 runs.

Earlier, Dilshan's knock was the centerpiece of Sri Lanka's 158 for five. His 57-ball innings, featuring two sixes and 12 fours, was the equal third-best in Twenty20 international history. Only fellow opener Sanath Jayasuriya (24 runs of 37 balls) and Mathews (12 not out of 6 balls) also made it into double figures.

It was only Dilshan inning who gave some respectability to Sri Lankan totals otherwise it could have been different story for them. Other than him no Sri Lankan batsman able to get going, once Jayasurya got out in 11^th over it was the start of a collapse that saw two more wickets (K.Sangakara and M.Jayawardne) lost for four runs in eight balls.

At the end of 19^th over Sri Lanka were 140/5 but Dilshan and Mathews collected as many as 18 runs in the last over bowled by Gayle to reach a formidable total and which was enough for West Indians.

T.Dilshan was declared Player-of-the-Match for his blistering unbeaten knock of 96 runs of 57 balls.