West Indies dent Sri Lanka’s semi-final chances

Player of the Match Steve Wedderburn of West Indies goes aerial as Sri Lankan wicket-keeper Sharujan Shanmuganathan looks on

• Win thrilling Super Six match by three wickets

West Indies blunted Sri Lanka’s much vaunted spin attack to squeeze home by three wickets with three balls to spare in a crucial Super Six game of the Under19 Cricket World Cup at Kimberley yesterday.

In a compelling and thrilling game of cricket West Indies who lost the toss on a turning and gripping pitch showed tremendous maturity in chasing down Sri Lanka’s total of 231 scoring 232-7 in reply.

Sri Lanka made their highest total of the tournament so far but it was not enough to stop West Indies from overtaking it and winning.

West Indies had to show all their skill against the guile of the Sri Lankan spinners and they were eventually successful.

Player of the Match Steve Wedderburn (61 off 71 balls, 5 fours, 3 sixes) and Jordan Johnson (39 off 46 balls, 4 fours) set the tone for West Indies with a third wicket stand of 86 off 89 balls after opener and skipper Stephan Pascal had got them off to flying start with 33 off 26 balls (5 fours, 1 six).

Sri Lanka pulled back by dismissing both Wedderburn and Johnson within two runs of each other and made West Indies work hard for every run by picking up wickets at crucial stages.

It was left to West Indies eighth wicket pair Nathan Sealy (27* off 28 balls, 1 four, 1 six) and Tarrique Edward (11* off 13 balls) to see them home in a crucial eighth wicket partnership of 27 off 26 balls.

It was once again left to Sri Lanka’s most consistent performer Dinura Kalupahana to give his team a decent score playing fluently to complete his third half-century of the tournament (53 off 83 balls, 5 fours) to take his team to a competitive total.

Malsha Tharupathi hit an aggressive 42 off 38 balls (7 fours) and there were contributions of 31 and 24 from Supun Waduge and Pulindu Perera respectively.

Sri Lanka came out with a positive frame of mind making their highest power play score of 46-3. They were a lot more aggressive but their batsmen always found a way to get in and get out without going on to make a big score.Bowl as well as they might, West Indies didn’t do justice to their bowling when they conceded 21 wides, which could have made their target even smaller.

Scores: Sri Lanka (U19) 231 (50) (Pulindu Perera 24, Supun Waduge 31, Dinura Kalupahana 53, Malsha Tharupathi 42, Nathan Edward 2/47, Raneico Smith 4/47)

West Indies (U19) 232-7 (49.3) (Stephan Pascal 33, Steve Wedderburn 61, Jordan Johnson 39, Nathan Sealy 27*, Dinura Kalupahana 2/39, Vishwa Lahiru 2/32, Sineth Jayawardana 2/39)