Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene smashes the West Indies' bowlers

The Sri Lankans' batting against West Indies was even more effective than the Australians' had been earlier in the day, though the style in which they went about scoring their runs could hardly have made a starker contrast. They stroked their runs rather than bludgeoned them. They key was Mahela Jayawardene, who is in better form than any man in the tournament. His unbeaten 98 in this match following his 100 against Zimbabwe and an 81 against New Zealand. He and Kumar Sangakkara shared a stand of 166, a record for the second wicket in international T20. The West Indians did not do themselves any favours. Their fielding was worse than atrocious. Sangakkara was dropped twice, once before he had scored and again on 27. And Suliemann Benn should have had Jayawardene out twice in a single over when he was in the 60s. Andre Fletcher made a hash of a simple stumping chance and, more startlingly still, allowed a high-flying top-edge to land five feet away from him as he left it to Wavell Hinds. Neither man called but each stood staring at the other from a few yards apart as the ball fell between them. So the batsmen raced on, Jayawardene tending to cut and slice the ball behind square, Sangakkara preferring to pull it to leg. Both men came down the wicket to hit lofted straight drives. They shared six sixes between them, before Sangakkara fell. Jayawardene promptly hit 10 runs from the next two balls, as if to crush any hope that still flickered in the opposition. West Indies fecklessness continued into their own innings. The openers departed early and Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo then spent an excessive amount of time rebuilding the innings. Muttiah Muralitharan, having recovered from his groin injury, Ajantha Mendis and Lasith Malinga were easily able to stifle what batting West Indies had left.