Sport
Twenty20 Cricket: West Indies fall to Sri Lanka
The West Indies never recovered from a poor start in which they lost both their big-hitting openers.
Johnson Charles failed to read Ajantha Mendis’s googly and was stumped for 12 and Chris Gayle was caught behind for two off slashing wildly at a Nuwan Kulasekara ball well outside off stump.
Dwayne Bravo and Marlon Samuels did their best to get the West Indies back into the match with a partnership of 65, but the Sri Lanka spinners wrestled back the initiative.
Bravo holed out to long-on off Jeevan Mendis for 40 and Kieron Pollard was bowled by the brilliant Ajantha, who took his tournament-leading wicket tally to nine.
Samuels continued to carry the fight, spanking the longest six of the tournament at 102 metres as the Windies plundered 21 runs off Kulasekara’s last over.
But they could only add 10 more from the final 12 balls as Malinga and Mathews rounded off a superb bowling performance.
Tillakaratne Dilshan set the tone for a routine run chase as he steered three consecutive balls from Fidel Edwards to the boundary.
