Hostile rain pushes Lankans to final

West Indies players celebrate as Sri Lankan ace batsman Kumar Sangakkara leaves the crease for just 1 run during the first semifinal of World T20 at Mirpur on Thursday evening. Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Sri Lanka got the ticket to final, beating West Indies by 27 runs in the first semifinal of World T20, by Duckworth-Lewis method as hailstorm interrupted the game at Sher-e Bangla National Stadium this evening.
Angelo Mathews was awarded Man of the Match.
Earlier, winning the toss, Sri Lanka opted to bat first and scored 160 runs at Mirpur.
A strong partnership of middle-order batsmen, Lahiru Thirimanne and Mathews, put the Lankans on the driver's seat of the match.
They scored 44 and 40 runs respectively playing 35 and 23 balls.
Lankan opener Tilakaratne Dilshan also played an effective innings of 39 runs off 39 deliveries.
Caribbean left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie picked up 2 wickets for 46 runs with a higher economy rate of 11.50.
Other two West Indies bowlers -- Samuel Badree and Andre Russell -- picked up one wicket each.
In reply, West Indies batted 13.5 overs and scored 80 runs losing 4 wickets before strong wind and shower along with hails poured down on Dhaka.
Dwayne Bravo scored 30 off 19 balls while skipper Lasith Malinga picked up 2 wickets for only 5 runs.
In the last year's WT20, these two teams played the final Match in which West Indies snatched the victory from the Lankans by 36 runs.
In today's Match, Malinga led the Lankan side as Dinesh Chandimal is opted out of the first XI.

Sri Lanka Team

MDKJ Perera, TM Dilshan, DPMD Jayawardene, KC Sangakkara†, AD Mathews, HDRL Thirimanne, S Prasanna, KMDN Kulasekara, SMSM Senanayake, HMRKB Herath and SL Malinga*

West Indies Team

DR Smith, CH Gayle, MN Samuels, LMP Simmons, DJ Bravo, D Ramdin†, DJG Sammy*, AD Russell, SP Narine, S Badree and K Santokie