India eliminated from T20 World Cup

Joseph Hoover
St Lucia, May 12 (PTI) India crashed out of the Twenty20
cricket World Cup after being handed a five-wicket defeat by
Sri Lanka in their final Super Eight match here, completing a
disappointing hat-trick of losses for Mahendra Singh Dhoni's
men in the mega-event.
After putting on 163 for five, India needed to win
Tuesday's crunch match by at least a 20-run margin to give
themselves an outside chance of sneaking into the semifinals.
However, Sri Lanka ended India's hopes with their
thrilling win. Chamara Kapugedara hit a six off Ashish Nehra
in the last ball of the 20th over as Sri Lanka made 167 for
five after a wobbly start.
Sri Lanka qualified for the semifinals as runners-up from
group F after Australia beat the West Indies in the other
Super Eights match. The Lankans will play England in the
semifinals.
India, the 2007 champions, were going great guns
initially as they were 90 for one in 10 overs but could muster
only 37 runs in the last five overs and the total proved
insufficient in the end.
Suresh Raina top scored for India with a 47-ball 63 and
Gautam Gambhir contributed 41 after Mahendra Singh Dhoni won
the toss and opted to bat.
Chasing the target, Angelo Mathews (46) played a gem of
an innings for Sri Lanka under pressure and with his skipper
Kumar Sangakkara (46) knit a valuable 56-run partnership for
the fourth wicket.
The start of India's defence could not have been better
as in-form Mahela Jayawardene (4) and Sanath Jayasuriya (0)
were back in the dugout by the end of second over.
Tillkaratane Dilshan (33) though was unperturbed and
smashed Nehra for three fours and extracted 13 runs from
Harbhajan Singh's first over.
Dilshan looked like taking the match away from India but
Yusuf Pathan got rid of the dangerous Lankan, having him
caught at square leg by Yuvraj Singh.
but India could hardly breath easy as Sangakkara and
Mathews batted with determination and brought their team back
in the hunt.
Sangakkara hit Pathan for two sixes in the 14th over,
picking up 16 runs to turn the heat on the Indians but Vinay
Kumar struck again by removing the Lankan skipper.
The fortunes were fluctuating but Mathews and Kapugedara
were not ready to throw in the towel and hit their bats at
everything the Indians threw at them. MORE PTI JH
AHM


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