Sri Lanka signed off in style from the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 on Thursday with a comprehensive 20-run win over the defending champions West Indies in their final match of the Super 12 in Abu Dhabi.

The 2014 champions overcame a valiant 81 not out from Shimron Hetmyer and 46 from Nicholas Pooran to defend 190 at the Zyed International Stadium to finish fourth in Group 1 behind England, Australia and South Africa with 4 points.

Former Windies skipper Dwayne Bravo, who was playing his final international match for the West Indies, contributed with just 2 runs with the bat but took a wicket to finish with 78 in his 15-year career that included two T20 World Cup titles in 2012 and 2016.

Shimron Hetmyer waged a lone battle towards the end of the innings but the target was just too big for the Windies to even get close to on the night.

The win was Sri Lanka’s second in the main draw in an otherwise disappointing campaign for the young team under all-rounder Dasun Shanaka while the Windies failed to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup for the first time in 10 years.

Earlier, Sri Lanka batters played with freedom and flair to set up a daunting 190-run target for the West Indies in the T20 World Cup in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

The pitches in Abu Dhabi have proved to be the best across the three venues and in-form Pathum Nissanka (51 off 41) and Charith Asalanka (68 off 41) enjoyed batting on the surface, taking Sri Lanka to 189 for three with a 91-run stand.

Nissanka played some outrageous strokes en route his third half-century of the tournament.

If the switch hit was not bold enough, the opener walked way across the off stump to whip Ravi Rampaul towards backward square leg for a boundary. Asalanka too struck a sublime half-century and one of the highlights of his innings was a straight slog sweep off Dwayne Bravo for a six.

Source: India Today