ICC World T20 2016: West Indies make easy work of disappointing Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka found themselves in the wrong end of what was a disconcerting performance from their batsmen who could only muster up 122 runs after being put into bat by West Indies. The Lankans failed to find their groove going from the beginning and following a bad decision by the umpire to give Tillakaratne Dilshan the marching orders quite early in the game, it was all for the West Indies bowlers to enjoy and put in their mark.

Samuel Badree was the pick of the bowlers for the country from the Carribean, picking up three wickets for only 12 runs, stopping Sri Lanka in their tracks. All the other bowlers did their bit with Suleiman Benn giving away only 13 runs but failed to get a wicket. Dwayne Bravo was the other destroyer in chief, taking two wickets with an economy of only five.

The Sri Lankan batsmen were all over the pitch, with Angelo Matthews and Thisara Perera giving a semblance of a fight in the middle order. Matthews was unfortunate to go out, having been caught by wicketkeeper Dinesh Ramdin while trying to duck under a full toss by Bravo. Perera led on till the end but failed to get enough on the board with which to cause West Indies any pain whatsoever.

Meanwhile, West Indies, when coming into bat were without Chris Gayle who suffered a hamstring injury while fielding and could not enter the batting arena without serving an equivalent amount in the dressing room. However, Andre Fletcher made sure that the swashbuckling hitter from the Royal Challengers Bangalore was not needed as he hit a quickfire 84 of only 73 balls to steer West Indies through. The innings consisted of six fours and five sixes but he was lucky to have stayed on the pitch after having a caught behind repelled by the third umpire for lack of definitive proof. They chased down the total with 10 balls to spare.

On the bowling front, there was nothing to write home about with Jeffrey Vandersay, who was brought in to replace a injured Lasith Malinga, the only bowler to show any teeth whatsoever in the contest. Milinda Siriwardana took two wickets but it is a long way back for Sri Lanka who need some major change in strategy to progress from this group. Meanwhile, West Indies picked up their second victory and are all but guaranteed a place in the semi-finals.