D/L METHOD SENDS SRI LANKA THROUGH TO THE FINALS OF WT20
West Indies on 3rd April faced the team of Sri Lanka in the 1st Semi-final of WT20 in Mirpur. The Sri Lankan standing captain Latish Malinga won the toss and elected to bat first. The openers Dilshan and Perera scored at a brisk rate. The Team was consistent in scoring at a rate of 10 runs for 1st four overs. Perera after giving a good start fell at 26 made of just 12 balls. Sangakara and Jaywardene failed to make their mark on the match as they went at a score of 1 and 0. Mathews and Thirimane made sure to build the innings slowly and later take the team to a respectable score of 160. The West Indian spinners were highly economical and but never dominated the match.
The West Indian team had all the fire power to achieve the target of 160 easily. But the well-disciplined bowling performance from Malinga & co. made sure that Gayle and Smith had to fight for every single run. Soon Malinga stuck two times to take the wicket of dangerous Gayle at 3 runs and Smith for 17. Then the inform bowler Prasanna took the third wicket and Kulasekara sent home the dangerous all-rounder Bravo for only 30. The slow chase from West Indies choked themselves for runs before the rain gods poured down heavily. At the time of rain stoppage the West Indian was 80/4 from 13.5 overs. Thus the
match result was decided by the D/L method which saw Sri Lanka winning the match by 22 runs and Mathews was declared the man of the match in this match.