BENGALURU, (Reuters) – West Indies brushed aside Sri Lanka by seven wickets in their World Twenty20 Super 10 match today, with opener Andre Fletcher, brought into the side after the injured Chris Gayle was pushed down the order, smashing an unbeaten 84.
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
SRI LANKA
+D Chandimal run out 16
T Dilshan lbw b Brathwaite 12
L Thirimanne c Fletcher b Badree 5
C Kapugedera st Ramdin b Badree 6
*A Mathews c wkp Ramdin b Bravo 20
M Siriwardana c Gayle b Badree 0
T Perera c Russell b Bravo 40
N Kulasekara b Russell 7
R Herath run out 3
J Vandersay not out 0
D Chameera not out 0
Extras (lb7, w 5, nb 1) 13
TOTAL (9 wkts, 20 overs) 122
Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Dilshan, 3.1 overs), 2-32 (Chandimal, 5), 3-41 (Thirimanne, 6.1), 4-47 (Kapugedera, 8.1), 5-47 (Siriwardana, 8.4), 6-91 (Mathews, 16.1), 7-116 (Kulasekara, 18.5), 8-121 (Herath, 19.4), 9-121 (Perera, 19.5)
WEST INDIES
A Fletcher not out 84
J Charles b Vandersay 10
M Samuels st Chandimal b Siriwardana 3
+D Ramdin b Siriwardana 5
A Russell not out 20
Extras (w5) 5
TOTAL (3 wkts, 18.2 overs) 127
To bat: C Gayle, DJ Bravo, *D Sammy, C Brathwaite, S Badree, S Benn.
Fall of wickets: 1-39 (Charles, 5.2 overs), 2-54 (Samuels, 8.3), 3-72 (Ramdin, 12.5)
Bowling: Mathews 1-0-13-0, Herath 4-0-27-0, Kulasekara 2-0-17-0 (w1), Vandersay 4-1-11-1, Siriwardana 4-0-33-2, Chameera 3-0-15-0 (w2), Perera 0.2-0-11-0 (w1).
Result: West Indies won by seven wickets.
Points: West Indies 2, Sri Lanka 0.
Man-of-the-Match: Andre Fletcher.
Toss: West Indies.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, J Cloete; TV – S Fry.
