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The Three M’s of the Lankan bowling attack - Mendis, Murali and Malinga was joined by another M - Angelo Mathews who completely stunned the West Indies top order to take Sri Lanka to the finals of the ICC T20 Championship.

West Indies were again undone by the superb bowling performance of the Lankans as they set to chase a modest target of 159. Against a par score of 180 in the first innings at the Oval, 159 was always supposed to be a gettable target for the Windies - known for their hard hitting styles and for being formidable “chasers” in this format of the game. But the Lankan fast bowler Mathews broke the momentum with a three-wicket haul in the first over of the chase from which the West Indies could never recover. Later, the two spinners – Mendis and Muralitharan choked the Windies batsmen leaving skipper Chris Gayle fighting a lone battle for his side. He remained unbeaten on 63 off 50 balls (Batting Momentum or BM of 79) to become the only batsman to reach the double figures for his side.

It was Sri Lanka’s bowling that did the trick again in the semi-final. If Lasith Malinga was not as lethal as he was in the previous games, Mathews took his place in this game. Mathews, Mendis and Murali today bowled 12 overs, conceded 54 runs and captured 8 wickets – a feat which devastated the Windies.

Sri Lankan Bowling Performance in the Semi-final

Earlier, Sri Lanka overcame a sedate start to their innings only to cut loose later and reached a score of 158 – largely due to Dilshan’s heroics with the bat. He scored a scintillating 96 off 57 balls (BM of 162) and carried his bat through to take the Lankan total to safety. The first wicket partnership of 73 runs off 63 balls between Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya gave momentum to the scoring rate of Sri Lanka. Then Dilshan teamed up with Chamara Silva to add another 50 runs to accelerate the Lankan innings. He was deservedly judged the “Man of the Match” for his electrifying innings.

The ICC T20 Championship final like last time will now be an all Asian final with Sri Lanka meeting Pakistan on Sunday at the Lords.