A delightfully unorthodox Sri Lankan attack working at close to its best
handcuffed a power-packed West Indies line-up, conceding just 129 runs
even though they took only five wickets in the 20 overs. The Sri Lankan
top three made light work of the target, the lowest-ever challenge in
Pallekele, taking a big step towards the semi-final courtesy of a hefty
net run-rate bonus from the win with 28 balls to spare.
Between Ajantha Mendis' different bamboozlements, Nuwan Kulasekara's mix
of inswingers and huge slower balls and Jeevan Mendis' skiddy
legrollers, Lasith Malinga could afford to have an off half-day, even
though he too came back with two superb overs in the end to stifle any
ambitions West Indies might have had after the innings was rebuilt by
half-centurion Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo, who scored 40 off 34
balls.
Kulasekara got big man Chris Gayle out with a delivery about 25 kph
slower than usual. Ajantha began with a wicket-maiden, toying around
with Johnson Charles, and ended with one run and Kieron Pollard's wicket
in the 16th over. Jeevan played his part in slowing down and eventually
getting rid of Bravo, who looked threatening. Jeevan even managed to
slip in a jig to match Gayle's celebrations.
Sri Lanka were on for this game from the moment Tillakaratne Dilshan
dived at short point to keep the first ball of the match to a dot; their
fielding hardly ever let up throughout the rest of the innings, except
for a half-chance missed by Kumar Sangakkara. There was tension and
anticipation around with the way West Indies had played out four quiet
overs without the loss of a wicket. Usually one of two things happen at
such times: either Gayle takes off or his team slips up after his
wicket.
Mahela Jayawardene wanted the wickets. He brought on Ajantha in earnest
and Charles had no clue which way it was turning, finally jumping out of
the crease more in hope than anything. He was beaten by the googly, and
stumped easily. Ajantha conceded only leg-byes in that over: take out
his middle match and his figures in the tournament now read 5-3-8-7. In
the next over Kulasekara produced the massive slower ball, Gayle waited
and waited, but all he could manage was an edge, which Sangakkara
accepted with a forward dive. With Gayle's first failure of the
tournament, the celebrations suggested the match had been won.
Bravo and Marlon Samuels, though, were not to oblige that. Samuels, with
his deft touches, and Bravo, with his power, rebuilt the innings with a
partnership of 65 in 9.2 overs. The strike-rate may not have been
great, but the approach made for good viewing. Bravo's extra-cover
drives matched Samuels' late-cuts for aesthetics. They preferred the
pace that Angelo Mathews and Malinga provided, but Jeevan put the brakes
on, conceding just two in his first over, and getting Bravo to pull to
long-on in the second.
Ajantha came back to finish off Pollard, but Andre Russell, the new man
in, broke the maiden. He and Samuels took 21 off Kulasekara's comeback
over, but Malinga pulled them back with a mix of yorkers and slower
balls in the 19th. An underwhelming 10 runs came in the last two overs
and Sri Lanka took all the momentum into the chase.
Dilshan got the chase off to a start similar to the one he had provided
in the field. The first three balls he faced he smacked for fours. Fidel
Edwards was the culprit providing him width. Replacing Samuel Badree
who went for 20 in his quota in the last match, Edwards had gone for 12
off the first three balls. Ravi Rampaul followed it up with a superb
over, removing Dilshan, but Jayawardene and Sangakkara were too good
against an attack comprising three specialist bowlers and defending just
129.
The two showed respect to Sunil Narine, if only because they could
afford to, taking just 23 off his four overs, but others weren't
accorded such nicety. Sangakkara reached 1000 international runs along
the way, and Jayawardene a seventh fifty. Once Narine was done, they
launched an attack in a bid to increase the net run-rate. They did so
without playing funky Twenty20 shots. The last 43 runs came off just 20
balls, and ticket to Colombo was all but booked.
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