Wretched display

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Awful fielding, terrible bowling and disastrous batting epitomised a 57-run defeat for West Indies at the hands of Sri Lanka, in the Twenty20 World Cup yesterday.

West Indies failed miserably in their pursuit of 196 for victory from their allocation of 20 overs in the fourth Super Eights match before a near-capacity crowd at Kensington Oval.

Ramnaresh Sarwan made the top score of 28 and Dwayne Bravo got 23, as Ajantha Mendis and Lasith Malinga undermined West Indies' batting with their clever bowling to collect three wickets apiece.

This followed a horrific performance from West Indies in the field, when they bowled waywardly, spilled a handful of catches and stand-in keeper Andre Fletcher missed a crucial stumping.

Highest competition total

They also missed another that let Mahela Jayawardene off the hook in an undefeated 98 from 56 balls, which earned him the Man-of-the-Match award, and led Sri Lanka to the highest total in the competition so far of 195 for three from 20 overs.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul got West Indies going in their chase in an action-packed second over delivered by Angelo Mathews. The typically obdurate left-hander essayed a scoop/sweep over deep backward square leg for six off the second ball, and stroked an off-drive for four from the penultimate ball.

But Chanderpaul got carried away and tried to slog/sweep the final delivery from outside the off stump and was caught at short third man for 11 off the top-edge.

West Indies then suffered a major setback when their captain, Chris Gayle, was caught at cover off Nuwan Kulasekara for five from the leading edge, looking to turn a ball into the leg side.

Dwayne Bravo joined Ramnaresh Sarwan and they consolidated with a stand of 53 for the third wicket. They got into the swing of things with a couple of lusty blows, including Sarwan's lofted extra-cover drive for four off Thisara Perera, and Bravo's equally attractive version off Muralitharan that sailed to the wide long-off boundary in the 10th over.

Next over, Bravo was caught at cover off Malinga, driving loosely, and Sarwan fell two overs later, when he offered a tame return catch to Mendis from the leading edge, to leave West Indies 82 for four.

The rest of the hosts' batting - including the Indian Premier League star Kieron Pollard and left-hander Wavell Hinds - failed to bring some respectability to the innings and West Indies lost four more wickets for 23 runs in the space of 19 balls.

West Indies face India in their second Super Eights match tomorrow, when Sri Lanka meet Australia.