Sri Lanka Reached the Final of Twenty20 World Cup 2009

Sri Lanka ended the relentless run of West Indies in the twenty20 world cup 2009 as they defeated the Caribbean side by 57 runs yesterday in the second semi final of the tournament, and thus, reaching the tournament final. Batting first Sri Lanka amassed 158 runs on the board losing 5 wickets. The Lankan side got off to a good start thanks to their opening pair who put on 73 runs before getting departed. Opener Tillakaratne Dilshan played a fiery innings of 96 not out from just 57 balls.

It was really unfortunate that Dilshan, who is currently the leading scorer of the tournament, had to stop four runs short of his century. Jayasuria got 24 runs, while Chamara Silva and Angelo Mathews scored 11 and 12 runs respectively. There is no doubt that Sri Lankan innings was a one-man show. Bravo picked up 2 wickets, while Jerome Taylor and Kieron Pollard got a wicket each.

West Indies had a disastrous start to their innings as they lost 3 wickets in their first over off Angelo Mathews. In fact, West Indies could not recover from the blow they received in the very first over of their innings. West Indies innings was also a one-man show as Captain Chris Gayle continued his fight in the one end, while wickets kept falling in the other end. Gayle played another excellent innings of 63 runs off 50 balls, while no other West Indies batsman could even reach double figure, except Mr. Extra’s 11 runs.

Mathews was the most successful bowler as he picked up 3 wickets for 16. Muralitharan and Mendis were also very impressive as they picked up 3 and 2 wickets respectively. However, it was Dilshan who was given the man of the match award.