The finalists of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 go at it again at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in the first semi-final of this year’s competition with little to choose between defending champions West Indies and world number one Sri Lanka in today’s titanic clash.
The teams come into the match in similar form, having navigated the Super 10 stage in near-identical fashion. Both sides won three of their four group games. They each produced command performances against their groups’ round one qualifiers, bundling out the Netherlands and Bangladesh for double-figures en route to comprehensive victories.
And they both emerged from must-win final group games against a pair of legitimate contenders in New Zealand and Pakistan, again bowling their respective opponents out for well under 100 runs to secure their places in the knock-out stages.
Sri Lanka finished with the best Super 10 net run-rate at +2.233; West Indies were second overall at +1.971.
The teams are virtually unchanged from the last encounter between the sides in the final of the last World Twenty20, but each team does feature a couple of important changes.
West Indies are without the dangerous Kieron Pollard but will avail of the services of in-form opener Dwayne Smith and specialist T20 medium pacer Krishmar Santokie, while Sri Lanka will have Sanath Jayasuria’s second coming Kusal Perera at the top of the order and spinner Sachithra Senanayake bolstering the bowling attack.
Darren Sammy’s side of course won the last meeting between the sides in Colombo by 36 runs, but the overall head-to-head history between the sides skews heavily in Sri Lanka’s favour. The 2012 final was the first time in five Twenty20 International matches – all in the previous three ICC World Twenty20 tournaments – that the West Indies had managed to beat the Lankan Lions.
The West Indies have had the benefit of playing their group matches at Mirpur, which may give them a slight advantage in terms of acclimatisation over a Sri Lankan team that has been dealing with a high-scoring track and excessive dew in Chittagong.
But, as Dwayne Bravo noted after his side’s win over Pakistan, Sri Lanka have been playing extremely well in Bangladesh for over two months, losing just one official match over that span and lifting the Asia Cup in the process.
The teams did meet recently in a warm-up match at Mirpur on March 19, and the West Indies again prevailed by 33 runs. The absence of Lasith Malinga in that match allowed Darren Sammy to flay the Sri Lankan attack around the park at the late overs, foreshadowing what was to come from the West Indies captain in the tournament’s group stage.
The Malinga-Sammy match-up then may just decide today’s affair. If Malinga is able to consistently sling his yorkers at the toes of the West Indies batsmen at the death, Sammy and Co. will find it difficult to run wild and pile on runs in a late assault on the bowlers as they have done so far in the competition. If Malinga is slightly wild, he could hand a spot in the final to the men from the Caribbean.
-With New Age input
