Defending champion West Indies out of T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka beat by 20 runs

West Indies vs Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka defeated the ‘defending champion’ West Indies by 20 runs in their last league match played at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Sri Lanka scored 189 runs for three wickets in 20 overs after playing first. In response, the West Indies team could only score 169 runs in the allotted overs. With this the West Indies team was out of the tournament.

Chasing the target of 190 runs from Sri Lanka, the West Indies team had a poor start once again. Chris Gayle, who came to open the innings, could only score one run in five balls. After this, Evin Lewis also went on after scoring eight runs. Shimron Hetmyer scored an unbeaten 81 runs in 54 balls for the West Indies, but he could not lead his team to victory. Apart from this, Nicholas Pooran scored 36 runs in 34 balls. Apart from these two, none of the batsmen could play.

During this, Roshton Chase 09, Andre Russell 02, captain Kieran Pollard 00 and all-rounder Jason Holder could only score 08 runs. At the same time, Dwayne Bravo could also score only two runs. Aqeel Hussain also returned unbeaten along with Hetmyer. He scored one run off a ball.

Binura Fernando, Chamika Karunaratne and Wanindu Hasaranga took two wickets each for Sri Lanka. At the same time, Dasun Shanaka and Dushmanta Chamira got one wicket each.

Earlier, after losing the toss, Sri Lanka, who came to bat first, scored 48 runs in six overs of the power play and lost the wicket of Kusal Perera (29 off 21 balls). Perera had hit Ravi Rampaul for a six at deep square leg, but Russell forced him to give back the catch by tumbling on a slow ball.

Aslanka and Nisanka batted strategically from here. Instead of playing long shots, he focused on rotating the strike and was successful in it. Meanwhile, he also brought loose balls to the boundary line and in the meantime did not allow the medium pace bowlers and spinners of West Indies. Sri Lanka reached triple digits in the 12th over.

Nisanka sent Rampaul’s off-side delivery for four runs at square leg and then took two runs to complete his half-century in 39 balls. This is his third fifty in this format. After this, however, his timing was not right on Bravo’s slow ball and he gave an easy catch on ‘Cow Corner’.

Aslanka completed her half-century in 33 balls. To support them, captain Dasun Shanaka (25 not out off 14 balls) came to the crease, who is known for playing long shots. When Shanaka showed his attitude by hitting six and four on the holder, Aslanka sent Bravo’s ball for six runs. Soon after, Aslanka waved Russell’s ball in the air and caught Shimron Hetmyer.