Sri Lanka sink India with last ball six

GROS ISLET, (Reuters) – India were humiliatingly knocked out of the Twenty20 World Cup yesterday when a  last-ball six from Sri Lanka’s Chamara Kapugedera condemned them  to their third straight defeat in the Super Eight stage.

Sri Lanka, who have two victories in Group F, won by five  wickets and will go through to the semi-finals.

Seconds after Kapugedera, needing three off the last ball,  drove Nehra mightily over cover for six, the Sri Lankan players  raced on to the field in joyous celebration of the win which  kept alive their hopes of reaching their second successive  final.

For India, who enjoy huge financial and political influence  in the game because of the success of their domestic Twenty20  league, the IPL, the result will be hard to swallow.

India made a challenging total of 163 with Suresh Raina  hitting a sparkling 63 but they paid the price for slowing down  significantly in the second half of their innings having been 90  for one after 10 overs.

“They bowled really well… they made it really difficult  for us,” said Indian captain M.S. Dhoni.

“Overall, batting is our strength and we should have done  better. We didn’t perform to our potential. The last 4-5 overs  that they bowled really restricted us. We need to improve in  quite a few areas.”

Sri Lanka timed their run chase perfectly.

Although they lost key openers Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath  Jayasuriya cheaply and stood at six for two, Tillakaratne  Dilshan (33) steadied things with some intelligent batting.

Skipper Kumar Sangakkara (46) and Angelo Mathews (46) then  provided the backbone of the reply before Kapugedera (37 not  out) took Sri Lanka over the line in spectacular fashion.

Kapugedera hit Vinay Kumar for two sixes at the end of the  penultimate over to significantly reduce the target to 13 off  the last over.

When Mathews hit the first ball of the final over, from  Nehra, for six, victory was in sight but he was run out in the  fifth ball of the over with still three needed.

By that stage the mathematics of run rate meant that India  were already out but it was more than salt in the wound to lose  in that fashion.

“At the end of the day, if you are outplayed and the  opposition plays really well there is nothing much you can  really do,” said Dhoni.

Sangakkara was in markedly different mood.

“We have always talked about how good our young players are,  and they showed that today. Whatever happens after this, we can  rest assured we have done the best we can”