Windies beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets in World T20

Mar 21, 2016 Sports

BENGALURU (Reuters) West Indies brushed aside Sri Lanka by seven wickets in their World Twenty20 Super 10 match yesterday, with opener Andre Fletcher, brought into the side after the injured Chris Gayle was pushed down the order, smashing an unbeaten 84.

Samuel Badree is jubilant after taking a wicket, Sri Lanka v West Indies, World T20 2016, Group 1, Bangalore, March 20, 2016 ©AFP

Gayle, scorer of an unbeaten century against England, has a minor hamstring injury and never made it to the crease, but his services were scarcely missed as Fletcher struck five sixes and six boundaries to seal a routine second Group One victory for the 2012 champions.
Fresh from the impressive six-wicket win over England on Wednesday, Windies skipper Darren Sammy won the toss at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and put Sri Lanka in, trusting his batsmen to chase down any total.
Defending champions Sri Lanka slumped to a disappointing 122-9 and then had no answer to Fletcher, who played with maturity to strengthen his team’s charge for a semi-final berth.
“We know what we are capable off. We know the strength of our team. If we continue playing the kind of cricket we are accustomed to playing, we are going to lift the cup a second time,” man-of-the-match Fletcher said after the game.
The win was set up by a strong bowling performance by the Windies, with pace bowler Carlos Brathwaite drawing first blood by getting the in-form Tillakaratne Dilshan out lbw with his first ball of the match in the third over.
Dilshan, who scored 83 against Afghanistan on Thursday, had tried to set the tone, hitting his first ball for six and following that up with a boundary, but he was out for 12.
His strike partner Dinesh Chandimal also suffered a soft dismissal, when he was run out on 16 in the fifth over.
Spinner Samuel Badree took 3-12 in his four overs to wreak havoc with Sri Lanka’s top order with Lahiru Thirimanne, Chamara Kapugedera and Milinda Siriwardana all falling cheaply.
“We just kept losing wickets and by the time we reassessed, it was too late,” Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Matthews said.
Mathews and Thisara Perera had a mountain to climb to put a competitive total on the board and managed 44 runs in 46 balls for the sixth wicket but both were caught off deliveries by Dwayne Bravo to give Sri Lanka no chance.

Scoreboard
World T20 – 21st match, Super 10 Group 1
Played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore (neutral venue)
Sri Lanka innings (20 overs maximum)
LD Chandimal†   run out (Charles/†Ramdin)         16
TM Dilshan   lbw b Brathwaite                               12
HDRL Thirimanne   c Fletcher b Badree      5
CK Kapugedera   st †Ramdin b Badree                   6
AD Mathews*   c †Ramdin b Bravo                         20
TAM Siriwardana   c Gayle b Badree         0
NLTC Perera   c Russell b Bravo                    40
KMDN Kulasekara   b Russell                   7
HMRKB Herath   run out (Bravo)                           3
JDF Vandersay   not out                                        0
PVD Chameera   not out                                        0
Extras   (lb 7, w 5, nb 1)                                       13
Total   (9 wickets; 20 overs)                        122

Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Dilshan, 3.1 ov), 2-32 (Chandimal, 4.6 ov),
3-41 (Thirimanne, 6.1 ov), 4-47 (Kapugedera, 8.1 ov),
5-47 (Siriwardana, 8.4 ov), 6-91 (Mathews, 16.1 ov),
7-116 (Kulasekara, 18.5 ov), 8-121 (Herath, 19.4 ov),
9-121 (Perera, 19.5 ov)

Bowling   O   M   R   W   Econ
AD Russell   4   0   34   1   8.50
S Badree   4   0   12   3   3.00
SJ Benn   4   0   13   0   3.25
CR Brathwaite   4   0   36   1   9.00   (1nb, 2w)
DJ Bravo   4   0   20   2   5.00   (2w)

West Indies innings (target: 123 runs from 20 overs)
ADS Fletcher   not out                                     84
J Charles   b Vandersay                   10
MN Samuels   st †Chandimal b Siriwardana    3
D Ramdin†   b Siriwardana                     5
AD Russell   not out                                       20
Extras   (w 5)                                                   5
Total   (3 wickets; 18.2 overs)              127

Did not bat: CH Gayle, DJ Bravo, DJG Sammy*,
CR Brathwaite, S Badree, SJ Benn

Fall of wickets: 1-39 (Charles, 5.2 ov),
2-54 (Samuels, 8.3 ov), 3-72 (Ramdin, 12.5 ov)

Bowling   O   M   R   W   Econ
AD Mathews   1   0   13   0   13.00
H Herath   4   0   27   0   6.75
K Kulasekara   2   0   17   0   8.50
J Vandersay   4   1   11   1   2.75
T Siriwardana   4   0   33   2   8.25
P Chameera   3   0   15   0   5.00   (2w)
N Perera   0.2   0   11   0   33.00   (1w)

MATCH DETAILS
Toss – West Indies, who chose to field
Result – West Indies won by 7 wickets (with 10 balls remaining)
Points – West Indies 2, Sri Lanka 0
Player of the match – ADS Fletcher (West Indies)
Umpires – Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and JD Cloete (South Africa)
TV umpire – SD Fry (Australia)
Match referee – JJ Crowe (New Zealand)
Reserve umpire – IJ Gould (England)