England into World Twenty20 final
England have booked a place in the World Twenty20 final, with a tight bowling performance setting up an easy run-chase and a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the competition’s first semi-final
Assigned the task of bowling first by Sri Lanka, England lost no time in making Kumar Sanggakara doubt his decision to bat first on a tacky pitch as Ryan Sidebottom struck on the first ball of the second over when veteran Sanath Jayasuriya edged one to Paul Collingwood at second slip.
Tillakaratne Dilshan, who threatened to find some form in Sri Lanka’s final Super Eight match against India, began his innings with intent, and a four, but didn’t last long, as Tim Bresnan claimed his first wicket when Luke Wright sprinted in from the fence to take a diving catch.
Stuart Broad joined the party with his first ball of the innings, as the Sri Lanka danger man, Mahela Jayawardene, tickled a climbing ball outside off-stump into wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter’s gloves.
Perhaps spin would be more to Sri Lanka’s liking? Not with Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy alternating ends and dictating terms. The pair conceded just 41 runs between them as they pinned the Sri Lanka batsmen down in the middle of their innings in a spell that also yielded Sanggakara’s scalp as Swann fooled him with a flighted delivery and Kevin Pietersen claimed the routine catch.
If there was one positive Sri Lanka could take from the eight overs of spin they’d faced – and it wasn’t their run-rate of 5.71 runs per over – it was that at least they had wickets in hand to attack the pacemen in the concluding overs of their innings.
In his attempts to lift the run-rate, Chamara Kapugedera took the idea of throwing his bat at it a bit too literally, as his swipe at a slower Sidebottom bouncer ended with his bat flying out of his hands to square leg. After that comedic interlude, Kapugedera succeeded in hitting a four the next ball, but the next over sent a Broad delivery safely to Bresnan at mid-off to end a 46-run partnership with Angelo Mathews.
England, or more precisely Bresnan, dropped the ball in conceding a 17-run over, which included three wides, in the 18th as Mathews, who had also been instrumental in Sri Lanka’s win against India, brought up his half-century.
Mathews’ single-handed resistance came to an end on 58 (from 45 balls) as he tried to snatch another valuable run with a ball remaining in Sri Lanka’s innings and his side where ultimately left with a modest total of 128-6 to defend.
Sri Lanka set about similarly strangling the England run chase as Sangakkara sent his spinners straight into the attack, a ploy that worked successfully until Kieswetter broke the shackles as England took 11 runs off Suraj Randiv in the third over and prompted a change to Mathews’ medium pace, and Lasith Malinga’s slingers. Both were greeted with boundaries as the England batsmen signalled made their intentions clear.
Lumb handed Sri Lanka an almost certain chance at breaking the partnership in the sixth over, when he came down the wicket to snatch an ambitious run, and was left stranded as Ajantha Mendis received the throw at the non-striker’s end. A costly fumble by the spinner, however, ensured what should have been a certain run-out was averted.
The 68-run partnership was finally broken when Malinga sent a Yorker crashing into Kieswetter’s stumps, the wicketkeeper-batsman departing for 39 from 29 balls after having established the platform for England’s run chase.
Lumb’s second chance came from a dropped chance, again off Malinga’s bowling, and his third in teh same over when another running mix-up – almost a carbon copy of the first – did not end as a run-out after some more sloppy Sri Lankan fielding.
The opener may have been three-times lucky, but after sending Thissara Perera for consecutive fours the all-rounder got his revenge when he went around the wicket and rattled Lumb’s stumps, dismissing him for a somewhat lucky, but nonetheless well made, 33 from 26 deliveries.
Pietersen and Collingwood guided England past 100 as the experienced pair picked off singles almost at will, with KP intermittently unable to resist a four or a six, as the sting went out of the game. The skipper’s unnecessary attempt at aggression went awry as he skied Perera with a top edge that ended in Sangakkara’s gloves and was out for 10.
Showing no signs of distraction after his dash home to England for the birth of his first child, Pietersen casually helped himself to an unbeaten 42 from 26 balls and England to victory, and a place in the final, with four overs to spare.
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