Ireland and Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh & Australia respectively to confirm their berth in Super Eight Australia v Sri Lanka – Sangakara and Dilshan dumped Australia out Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakara and T.Dilshan played an important role in run chase against Australia to achieve the target of 160 runs with one over to spare and beat them by six wickets. For the first time Australia faces so much early exit from the tournament in a decade. The win for Sri Lanka confirm their and West Indies berth in the Super Eight Stage. Chasing the target of 160 runs for victory Sri Lanka got off to flying start with the help of in-form T.Dilshan (53 runs of 32 balls) despite loosing opener Sanath Jayasurya (2 runs of 7 balls) in the third over of an inning. Dilshan and K.Sangakara (55 runs of 42 balls) put on a valuable partnership 62 runs of just 42 deliveries to make the run chase comfortable for other batsman to follow. However once Dilshan got out Australia did manage to get the match closer to the end overs but in the end it was captain cool Sangakara and Jehan Mubarak (21 runs of 12 balls) achieved the target with an over remaining. Earlier Australian after put into bat got off to disastrous start loosing opener David Warner in the very first over. However R. Ponting (25 runs of 15 balls) and Shane Watson (22 runs of 21 balls) tried hard to put Australian inning back on track but once spinner introduced into attack they were struggled and kept loosing wickets at regular intervals. At one stage they were struggling to get pass 150 run mark but thank to M.Johnson (28 runs of 13 balls) and David Hussey (28 runs of 22 balls) innings as they both collected 65 runs in the last five overs of Australian inning. Kumara Sangakar was declared Man-of-the-Match for his superb unbeaten knock of 55 runs of 42 balls. Match Summary (Sri Lanka won by 6 Wickets) Australia – 159/9 in 20 Overs M.Johnson- 28 D.Hussey –28 A.Mendis– 4-0-20-3 L.Malinga- 4-0-36-3 Sri Lanka – 160/4 in 19 Overs K.Sangakara- 55* T.Dilshan–53 B.Lee – 4-0-39-2 M.Clark- 3-0-19-1 Ireland v Bangladesh – Ireland beat Bangladesh by 6 wickets to enter Super Eight Ireland played an exceptional cricket on a day when require to make it to the Super Eight of ICC world twenty20. They have beaten test playing nation Bangladesh quite convincingly by 6 wickets. The hungrier side was always going to come up tops and Ireland took a massive stride by keeping a reckless Bangladesh to 137. Bangladesh batted with the freedom of a team that believed they were already in the next stage and paid the price, stumbling after a shaky start. Thanks to M.Mortza quick fire 33 runs of 16 balls that gave some respectability to Bangladesh. Ireland didn’t got-off to good start but the O’Brien brothers make it possible for their team by playing some good cricket with bat. First it was N. O’Brien who smashed 40 runs of 25 balls and then K. O’Brien finished the game with blistering 39 runs of just 17 balls. N. O’Brien was declared Man-of-the-Match for his quick fire 40 runs of 25 balls. Match Summary (Ireland won by 6 Wickets) Bangladesh – 137/8 in 20 Overs M.Mortaza- 33* T.Iqbal –22 T.Johnson– 4-0-20-3 K.McCallan- 4-0-17-1 Ireland – 138/4 in 18.2 Overs N.O’Brien- 40 K.O’Brien–39 M.Mortaza – 4-0-30-2 A.Razzak- 3-0-18-1 |
