Sri Lanka knock India out of World Twenty20
Sri Lanka have knocked India out of the World Twenty20 with a five-wicket victory in their final Super Eight match.
It was a disappointing end for India, who entered the tournament as one of the favourites to win the title in the Caribbean, but finished it with three straight losses in the Super Eight stage.
For Kumar Sangakkara’s side, however, it was a step closer to improving on their runners-up result of 2009 and a fighting performance that will boost their confidence ahead of Thursday’s semi-final against a much-improved England.
Sri Lanka’s victory over India was sealed with a six from the final ball of their innings, with Sangakkara (46 from 33) and Angelo Mathews (46 from 37) top scoring in the run chase before Chamara Kapugedera - who employed some big hitting on his way to 36 from 17 balls –helped Sri Lanka across the line ahead of MS Dhoni’s team.
Pleasingly for Sri Lanka, it was a solid batting performance from a group of batsmen who needed to produce just that after openers Mahela Jayawardene (four) and Sanath Jayasuriya (duck) were dismissed within the first couple of overs.
It was the second successive failure for Jayawardene, who began the World Twenty20 as the most in-form batsmen of the competition with innings of 81, 101, 98 but Sri Lanka will draw positives from the fact that this time the remainder of their batting order stepped up and got the job done.
Even the struggling Tillakaratne Dilshan joined the party with a valuable 33 from 26 deliveries to help get both his tournament and his team’s innings back on track.
Sri Lanka may have been a one man batting show for the first three matches in the Caribbean, but they couldn’t have picked a better time to deliver a team effort.
For India, it was once potential match-winner Suresh Raina (63 from 47) who led the way after they had won the toss and decided to bat first. Gautam Gambhir’s 41 from 32 was another valuable innings but to Sri Lanka’s credit, they allowed India just 37 runs in the last five overs to ensure they were chasing a manageable total.
After India’s much publicised trouble against the pace and bounce of the Australia and West Indies bowlers, it was again the quicks who proved most damaging against Dhoni’s team even on the slower St Lucia pitch, with slinger Lasith Malinga and seamer Thilan Thushara – who started expensively but was tight in his final two overs – finishing with two wickets apiece.
It’s back to the drawing board now for India, who landed in the Caribbean with a team packed full of IPL stars and surrounded by high hopes of bringing home the trophy, while Sri Lanka now have the chance to claim the title of World Twenty20 champions that so narrowly eluded them in England last year.
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