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April 01, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

The hosts West Indies seem to have lost any sort of interest in competing in the World Cup. They got good support from a better crowd turn out at the Providence Stadium, but still the 11 West Indian players lacked the inspiration and the hunger for victory as they went down by a huge margin of 113 runs against Sri Lanka at Guyana. The hosts have lost their third consecutive Super Eights match and they look at the brink of getting eliminated. The approach shown by a couple of West Indian batsmen seems suspicious as they did not make any attempt to chase the 304 set by the Sri Lankan Lions.

Brian Lara did just the one thing right whole day, winning the toss and putting SL to bat first with the conditions being overcast. The match got off to a delayed start due to wet outfield but no overs were deducted. A couple of early wickets with the new ball from Daren Powell and Ian Bradshaw lifted the spirits of the fans with Sri Lanka losing Tharanga and Sangakkara for 35 on the board in a little under 9 overs. However, those were the only success the home side were going to taste for a long time. Sanath Jayasuriya cracked at the right time when his side required him and so was the case with Skipper Mahela Jayawardene, hitting form at the right period. The left hand and right hand combination put up a match saving 183 runs for the third wicket at run-a-ball rate. Sanath Jayasuriya went onto score his 25th ODI hundred. His innings came to an end in the 39th over, dragging a low full toss onto his stumps and by then he had smashed 115 from 101 balls with 10 fours and four superb sixes.

Sri Lanka seemed to have lost their rhythm as the partnership between Sanath and Mahela slowed down a bit in the latter stages. But the remaining batsmen covered up by smacking 79 runs off the last 10 overs. Mahela Jayawardene helped himself to 82 from 113 balls with 2 fours and a six before he was yorked by Bravo in the 45th over. It was Tillakaratne Dilshan, who had made the difference towards the end by scoring a brilliant cameo of 39 from 22 balls which had 2 fours and 2 sixes. He infact had smacked a six off the last ball of the innings. West Indies had surprisingly omitted Corey Collymore for this crucial encounter and had got in Bradshaw who was taken for 67 runs in his 10 overs. The captaincy from Lara wasn't convincing at all, he failed to bowl out Jerome Taylor, who finished with none for 32 in 8 overs. Once again the pick of the bowlers was undoubtedly Daren Powell with 2 for 38 from 10 overs.

In their chase of 304, West Indies got Dwayne Bravo to open the batting with Chris Gayle, who was the first casualty. Gayle had struggled to pick Lasith Malinga's awkward action, he did lift him for a fine boundary, but was in no time caught at mid off going for a desperate slog. It was a brilliant overhead catch from Dilhara Fernando at mid off which showed the difference in the fielding standards between both the sides. The other opener Bravo was cleaned up by a beautiful incutter from Chaminda Vaas and Windies were pegged back at 40 for 2 in the 9th over.

The real turning point of the match came when Kumar Sangakkara did a brilliant stumping to dismiss Brian Lara in the 11th over. The bowler wasn't a spinner but was Chaminda Vaas, who had got the ball to deviate away enough to beat Lara's flamboyant drive. For a fraction of a second, Lara's backfoot was out of the crease and then in the air behind the crease which was more than enough for Sangakkara. It was ironically the first stumping dismissal for Vaas, Windies reeling under pressure at 42 for 3! Sangakkara was also standing upto the stumps only for Lara, so all in all a mastermind tactic!

Something fishy...was the match fixed???

After Lara's exit, two Guyanese batsmen - Chanderpaul and Sarwan got together in front of their home crowd. They made sure that they didn't lose their wickets, but they also made sure that the game came to a standstill with their lackluster rate of scoring. Something was fishy indeed and for the next 24 overs, West Indies added just 92 runs! Sarwan's innings came to an end just when he was trying to step up the gas, he was stumped by Sangakkara, but this time off the bowling of Jayasyuriya. Sarwan departed for 44 from 68, heaving against the turn and dragging his foot out of the crease. While Marlon Samuels was lbw to Murali's doosra from round the stumps for a duck, Dwayne Smith got run out in a pathetic fashion. The writing was on the wall for the hosts and Chanderpaul finally did make an effort to play the big shots which were not going to serve anything for West Indies Cricket. He did strike five brilliant sixes, no doubt about that, but his innings was a shocker, a selfish one that batted his side out of the game. He was thankfully yorked by Lasith Malinga that ended his 110-ball innings that produced only 76 runs. Not to mention that just the one boundary was scored by him! Windies were cleaned up for 190 in 44.3 overs.

All the seven bowlers used by Mahela had done a tremendous job. The suspicious stage of the batsmen doing something against normal was when Chanderpaul and Sarwan had got just 20 runs from the part time spin of Dilshan and Arnold in 7 overs. Mahela Jayawardene had smartly used these two spinners from the 16th over onwards after he had held back the third powerplay. It was a clever move to ensure that the 20 overs were bowled out quickly before any rain could hit the stadium. Sanath Jayasuriya not only scored a hundred but also picked up three wickets conceding only 38 runs in 8.3 overs. The bowler who was taken for runs was interestingly Muralitharan, but he did get two wickets although he was hit for 59 in his 9 overs. Dilhara, who had come in for Maharoof in this game bowled a great spell of 7 overs giving away only 19 runs besides bowling three maidens. It was a clinical performance from the Lankans but something's seriously wrong with the West Indian cricketers for sure!

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