Sri Lanka overpowers West Indies

Sri Lanka (192-5) beat the West Indies (177-5) by 15 runs in a high-scoring encounter at Trent Bridge yesterday in the World Twenty20.

Both sides had already qualified for the Super Eights round by beating Australia, and West Indies were resting their explosive captain Chris Gayle, but veteran Sanath Jayasuriya scored 81 off 47 balls in the Sri Lankans' total.

Dwayne Bravo's 51 off 38 balls brought the West Indians close to their target, but stifling slow bowling from Murali Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis kept them always behind the run rate.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
David Foot, the Guardian: "Twenty20 is no country for old men, but clearly nobody has told Sanath Jayasuriya. Thirteen years ago the opener revolutionised batting tactics in one-day cricket with his pinch-hitting exploits in Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup win. Twenty20 has come late in the day for him but he intends to prosper as long as he can. He is the oldest man in the tournament, with a 40th birthday at the end of the month, the only international player still standing who began his career in the 1980s. He has scored rapidly in Tests, disrespectfully in ODIs and now his approach to Twenty20 verges on indecency. In 12 Twenty20 internationals, he has pelted along at a strike rate of 150 per 100 balls."

Daily Mail: "Many of Jayasuriya's blows were trademark, vintage and wholly intended slices to and beyond the square off-side boundaries - and it was only a nod to modern developments that eventually saw him go lbw, caught in front attempting a reverse-sweep at Lendl Simmons. Jayasuriya had been largely successful with his earlier attempts at joining the innovators, and his only moments of fortune came on 30 when Denesh Ramdin failed to cling on to a half-chance and then on 64 - Simmons unable to collect an aerial pull."

Jon Culley, the Independent: "In contrast with Jayasuriya's mild demeanour away from the game, Sri Lanka's most prolific one-day batsman has never been reluctant to unleash his aggressive side at the crease, where he combines technique with power. His scores lately, after a quiet stint in the Indian Premier League, have offered little hint of form yet, with no little help from Tillakaratne Dilshan, he led his side in a demolition of the West Indies from which they were never likely to recover. Dilshan's 47-ball 74 was his second half-century of the tournament and contained not one but two successful executions of the overhead scoop for four that had added to Australia's humiliation here on Monday evening." ·