Jayasuriya shines in comfortable win
by CricketArchive Staff Reporter


Player:ST Jayasuriya, TM Dilshan, BAW Mendis, LMP Simmons, DJ Bravo
Event:ICC World Twenty20 2009

DateLine: 10th June 2009

 

At a time when a lot of critics had started to count the last few days of Sanath Jayasuriya’s career, the left-handed swashbuckling opener came up with a typical Jayasuriya knock (81 off 47 balls) and propelled Sri Lanka to a huge total against the West Indies. The scintillating batting display made sure that the Lankans won by 15 runs.

 

Chasing a huge 193 to win, West Indies also started off in rollicking fashion scoring 32 runs in the first three overs. Andre Fletcher and Lendl Simmons went behind the Lankan attack from the word go. Lasith Malinga though once again proved how good he is in this format of the game deceiving Fletcher and cleaning him up for 13.

 

The Windies batsman though did not succumb. They continued to attack and Simmons (29 off 19 balls) especially looked ominous for Lanka. Isuru Udana came in to bowl in the fifth over and it took him 10 balls and 15 runs to finish the over. He was not helped by the fact that there was also an overthrow by Mahela Jayawardene off the last ball of the over which reached the boundary.

 

Simmons then got stuck into Mendis, hitting him for a couple of boundaries in his first over. He though started to get a little too adventurous. He tried to do the same with the wily Muttiah Muralitharan but the off-spin wizard had the last laugh having Simmons caught at slip. Then Mendis struck in the next over to remove Xavier Marshall for 14 off 11 balls. The same over also saw the fall of Shivnarine Chanderpaul for just one, foxed by a Mendis in-dipper.

 

The match seemed to go way away from the Windies at that stage but Dwayne Bravo wanted to have a little fun. He started to cart the Lankan bowlers, especially going behind Jayasuriya in one over taking 13 off it. He and Ramnaresh Sarwan (28 off 26 balls) tried their best to reach the target but it was too much for them to scale. Bravo finally fell for a well-made 51 off 38 deliveries and the knock was studded with five boundaries and couple of huge sixes.

 

After Bravo's wicket, both the sides just went through the motions and though Keiron Pollard (19 off 11 balls) did hit a few lusty blows at the end, the West Indian outfit still fell short by 15 runs.

 

Earlier having put Sri Lanka in to bat first, the West Indies bowlers started to bowl in the favourite regions to the swashbuckling Jayasuriya. They bowled short, gave him room and the result was that the batsman did what he is best at, smack the bowling all across the park.

 

After a good first over by Jerome Taylor, Jayasuriya got stuck into Fidel Edwards, hitting the bowler for 17 runs in the over which included two hits to the fence and one over it. Taylor's next over was also carted for 11 runs and the bowler was lucky that he escaped a free hit as the left-hander failed to read a slower bouncer.

 

The bowlers were immediately changed and first Bravo and then spin in the form of Suleiman Benn was introduced into the attack in as soon as the fifth over. The two overs by Bravo and Benn just brought a little bit of sanity back to the bowling, but Tillekeratne Dilshan opened up once Pollard was brought to bowl the last over with fielding restrictions. A total of 19 runs were scored in the Pollard over and Sri Lanka finished the powerplays at 66 without loss.

 

The carnage by the openers continued even after the fielding restrictions were lifted and Jayasuriya raised his fifty in the eight over off just 29 balls.

 

The inability to pick up wickets forced Denesh Ramdin to bring back Edwards in the 10th over. Unfortunately with Jayasuriya in this kind of form not much happened for the speedster. He was greeted with a huge six off his very first ball of this spell. The over went for 20 runs with three boundaries after the six as Lanka raced to 105 for no loss in 10 overs.

 

Jayasuriya finally fell for 81 off 47 deliveries, lbw to Simmons trying to reverse sweep the bowler. The opening stand was worth 124 runs between him and Dilshan. Dilshan then took over. He had till now been happy playing the second fiddle but Jayasuriya's wicket kind of gave him the licence to kill. He raised his 50 in 36 deliveries as Sri Lanka continued to rocket ahead.

 

The right-hander marched ahead with some big hits, though Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene fell for five and four respectively. His sweeps off medium pacers straight over the top of the wicket-keeper's head kept astonishing the West Indian bowlers and he kept playing the shot with aplomb. He finally fell for 74 off 47 deliveries and the knock was studded with 11 fours and a six.

 

The West Indies it seemed had saved their best for the last. The final three overs yielded just 24 runs and the last over was a beauty by Taylor. He gave away just five runs and the total which at one time looked as if it would cross the 200 barrier easily was restricted to 192.