Scorecard:

Sri Lanka: 158 for 5 (20 overs)

(Dilshan 96* off 57 balls, Jayasuriya 24 off 37 balls, Bravo 2 for 32)

West Indies: 101 all out (17.4 overs)

(Gayle 63* off 50 balls, Matthews 3 for 16, Muralitharan 3 for 29, Mendis 3 for 9)

Sri Lanka began with a very solid start, though with reversed roles. Dilshan began hitting hard and Jayasuriya remained quite. The strategy threw West Indian bowlers off guard. And Sri Lanka raced off to 73 for no loss in no time. However, Bravo bowled a wonderful over and in a short span the were 77 for 3. However, Dilshan played the innings of his life to rescue Sri Lanka. This seems to be a winning total. Would they win?

West Indies began and Gayle took a run off the very first ball. He may regret this run later. In the next 5 balls, West Indies had their nose pinned to the ground. They lost 3 wickets and were just one run off the starting block. AD Matthews was an instant Hero! He had got Marshall, Simmons and Bravo in one shot! Gayle began a tough uphill journey with unlikely probabilities. It seemed to be all over for the West Indian revival. Two nations with bad finance were fighting it out. A win was the only way out of deep financial water. Which one’s going to script their return to pink health?

Well there was no escape from the script that Matthews wrote. And slowly but surely West Indies succumbed. The Man of the Match was Dilshan. But my choice would have been Matthews. His one over destroyed the entire spirit of a Team!

This match was special for another reason. During Dilshan’s unbeaten knock, he became the first batsman to score more than 60% of a team’s total (for teams having played the entire innings) in T20 form of cricket. But there was more to come, Chris Gayle just in the second innings topped that and remaining unbeaten became the highest contributor to a team’s total.

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Scorecard:

Sri Lanka: 192 for 5 (20 overs)

(Jayasuriya 81 off 47 balls, Dilshan 74 off 47 balls, Simmons 4 for 19)

West Indies 177 for 5 (20 overs)

(Bravo 51 off 38 balls, Simmons 29 off 19 balls, Mendis 2 for 25, Muralitharan 1 for 21)

Sri Lanka started very well and put up 124 on board in just over 12 overs without losing any wicket. A 225 kind of score looked in the offing. But Simmons stepped in with a 4 wicket haul and could restrict Sri Lanka team under 200. The highlight of the innings of course was the opening partnership and Jayasuriya’s domination.

West Indies, started equally fast putting up their 50 even before the 5 over was finished. They seemed to be right on course. Here was when Mendis and Muralitharan stepped in and took 3 wickets within a space of 8 balls. There was no fight left in the Windies. Even though Bravo’s late surge kindled a hope they were about 2 overs behind and finished at least one over behind.

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