Rain, Sri Lanka have final say

Kalbaishakhi is a storm occasionally accompanied by thunder before the month of Baishakh (early April) in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

The West Indies would be ruing the fact that the storm visited Dhaka on Thursday. Their dreams of making a second successive ICC World Twenty20 final and then lifting the trophy all over again came crashing down as Sri Lanka won the first semifinal by 27 runs (Duckworth-Lewis Method) at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium.

Chasing a 161-run target, Darren Sammy & Co. were 80/4 after 13.5 overs when it started pouring. According to the par scores table, the Caribbean outfit should have scored 107/4. They fell well short.

A double strike by captain Lasith Malinga had the West Indies in trouble as Chris Gayle (3) and Dwayne Smith (17) went back without doing much damage. Lendl Simmons, too, followed suit after being dismissed leg-before wicket cheaply by Seekkuge Prasanna.

With the West Indies reeling at 34/3, Dwayne Bravo tried to steady the ship with a quickfire 30 off 19 balls with three fours and a six. He looked dangerous and pounced on every opportunity to get maximums. As the pressure mounted, Bravo went for a whip off seamer Nuwan Kulasekara, only to find Mahela Jayawardene. Within minutes, it started raining and the players were off.

Earlier, crucial knocks from Lahiru Thirimane (44) and Angelo Mathews (40) helped Sri Lanka post a competitive total after Malinga chose to bat. A fiery start by Kushal Perera, ably supported by Tillakaratne Dilshan, helped the Asian giants. Krishmar Santokie was the most successful bowler with two for 46. He got Perera and Thirimanne.