Australia knocked hosts the West Indies out of the World Twenty20 and kept alive the possibility of an Anglo-Australian final with a dominating six-wicket win on Tuesday.
West Indies, in a match they had to win by 24 runs to reach the semi-finals, were bowled out for just 105 at the Beausejour Stadium.
Australia, in reply, lost two wickets on 31. However, Brad Haddin (42) saw Australia to the verge of victory before he got out with two runs needed to West Indies captain Chris Gayle.
PHOTO: AFP
The occasional off-spinner then ended the match with a ball that went for five wides, a delivery that summed up his team’s performance on the day.
Australia, who finished on 109 for four, won with 22 balls to spare.
Their win ensured Sri Lanka, last year’s losing finalists, also went through to the semi-finals as Group F runners-up.
PHOTO: AFP
England will play Sri Lanka, who earlier on Tuesday knocked out India with a five-wicket win, in the first semi-final today.
The second semi-final will see Australia playing defending champions Pakistan, also at Beausejour, tomorrow.
The final takes place at Barbados’ Kensington Oval on Sunday.
PHOTO: AFP
Victory meant Australia remained unbeaten at the tournament and captain Michael Clarke said: “Hopefully we can come out and continue this momentum. We want to play positive, aggressive cricket and our fielding standards have been high.”
West Indies, who saw Gayle win the toss, suffered a dramatic collapse. From the relative safety of 52 for two, they lost their next five wickets for 25 runs as they slumped to 77 for five.
Gayle said: “We lost too many wickets at the top. Australia are playing good cricket. I wish them all the best.”
Only Ramnaresh Sarwan (26) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (24) made it past 20.
Australia leg-spinner Steven Smith, the man-of-the-match, took two wickets in two balls on his way to figures of three wickets for 20 runs as West Indies failed to sparkle under the Beausejour floodlights.
West Indies’ star batsman Gayle was out second ball, clean bowled by left-arm quick Dirk Nannes, the tournament’s leading wicket-taker.
Then the experienced Chanderpaul, having flicked Mitchell Johnson’s second and fifth balls for four was out to the left-arm quick’s sixth.
The left-handed batsman launched Johnson high over the bowler’s head but didn’t quite time his shot and David Hussey, running back from mid-on, took a superbly judged catch.
The slump really took hold in unlucky fashion when all-rounder Dwayne Bravo (six) was run out, backing up, after Johnson touched a Sarwan drive onto the stumps at the bowler’s end.
Smith then got in on the act as recalled batsman Narsingh Deonarine holed out for a duck, caught by Michael Hussey at deep midwicket.
And he followed up with two wickets in two balls.
Kieron Pollard (13) tried to work the ball legside, but was beaten by the turn and wicketkeeper Haddin completed a neat stumping.
Next ball Darren Sammy, in front of his St Lucia home crowd, chipped a simple return catch back to Smith. Jerome Taylor survived the hat-trick. Sarwan, the last of the specialist batsmen, tried to clear long-off, but simply holed out off part-time spinner David Hussey to David Warner.
In reply, Warner made a typically brisk 25 off 12 balls before he edged paceman Taylor to Gayle at slip.
And next ball 31 for one became 31 for two when Watson gloved an intended sweep off left-arm spinner Benn onto his stumps.
Clarke helped Haddin add 47 for the third wicket before he was brilliantly run out by Bravo, after an athletic stop and direct hit from short third man.
However, that was an all too rare highlight for the West Indies.
■SRI LANKA SINK INDIA
REUTERS, GROS ISLET, ST LUCIA
India were humiliatingly knocked out of the Twenty20 World Cup on Tuesday when a last-ball six from Sri Lanka’s Chamara Kapugedera condemned them to their third straight defeat in the Super Eight stage.
Sri Lanka, who have two victories in Group F, won by five wickets and go through to play England in today’s semi-final.
Seconds after Kapugedera, needing three off the last ball, drove Nehra mightily over cover for six, the Sri Lankan players raced on to the field in joyous celebration of the win which kept alive their hopes of reaching their second successive final.
For India, who enjoy huge financial and political influence in the game because of the success of their domestic Twenty20 league, the IPL, the result will be hard to swallow.
India made a challenging total of 163 with Suresh Raina hitting a sparkling 63, but they paid the price for slowing down significantly in the second half of their innings having been 90 for one after 10 overs.
“They bowled really well ... they made it really difficult for us,” Indian captain M.S. Dhoni said.
“Overall, batting is our strength and we should have done better. We didn’t perform to our potential. The last 4-5 overs that they bowled really restricted us. We need to improve in quite a few areas,” he said.
Sri Lanka timed their run chase perfectly.
Although they lost key openers Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya cheaply and stood at six for two, Tillakaratne Dilshan (33) steadied things with some intelligent batting.
Skipper Kumar Sangakkara (46) and Angelo Mathews (46) then provided the backbone of the reply before Kapugedera (37 not out) took Sri Lanka over the line in spectacular fashion.
Kapugedera hit Vinay Kumar for two sixes at the end of the penultimate over to significantly reduce the target to 13 off the last over.
When Mathews hit the first ball of the final over, from Nehra, for six, victory was in sight, but he was run out in the fifth ball of the over with still three needed.
By that stage the mathematics of run rate meant that India were already out, but it was more than salt in the wound to lose in that fashion.
“At the end of the day, if you are outplayed and the opposition plays really well there is nothing much you can really do,” Dhoni said.
Sangakkara was in markedly different mood.
“We have always talked about how good our young players are, and they showed that today. Whatever happens after this, we can rest assured we have done the best we can,” he said.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS