Staff Writer – Archi
West Indies cricket. Perhaps this was the only way to stop the West Indies calypso. The Caribbean side was ousted in the World Twenty20 meet after losing to Sri Lanka via Duckworth-Lewis method in the rain-marred semifinal in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Thursday.
A dejected West Indies captain Darren Sammy said it was “disappointing” and “sad” for the defending champions to exit this way.
“Its’ disappointing to come out of the tournament like this, but credit to Sri Lanka. We have had a good run in the tournament, and it’s sad we got knocked out because of D/L,” Sammy said after the match.
“But that’s life, we’ve got to move on and plan for the next tournament. (Chris) Gayle and (Dwayne) Smith have a clear idea on how they want to play. We started very well, but their off-spinner (Sachithra Senanayake) bowled very well to Gayle and Smith. From there on, we were behind the eight ball,” he said.
“I was looking forward to raise the trophy, but I am now just going to sit and watch and hope that it’s not one-sided. Best of luck to other teams.”
Photo courtesy www.zimbio.com
Batting first in the first semifinal, Sri Lanka scored an impressive 160 for six riding on important contributions from Angelo Mathews (40) and Lahiru Thirimanne (45). In reply, West Indies were 80 for four in 13.5 overs when a storm followed by heavy downpours ruled out any chances of a game.
The D/L par score at that point of time was 107 and the Caribbeans were well short of the target, struggling at 80 for four in 13.5 overs.
“We tried to restrict team to below 150. They were off to a flier, but we did well to peg them back. They got a few more than we expected. Normally (Krishmar) Santokie and Russell bowl very well at the back end, but today was just one of those days. Sri Lanka played very well,” he stated.
Asked whether they backed themselves to chase down the challenging target, Sammy said: “We came here, we fought really hard. There was no panic in the dressing room. We back ourselves to get 12 runs an over.”
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