West Indies qualify for probable Australian re-match

A West Indies-Australia semi-final was all but confirmed at the ICC Under-19 World Cup today after the West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 62 runs in their Super League match at Hagley Park in Christchurch.

There is still a mathematical buffer that could deny Australia, although that is reliant on New Zealand thrashing the Australians tomorrow and South Africa similarly thrashing England.

Chasing 203 to win, Sri Lanka was bowled out for 140, scoring more than 25% fewer runs than the opposition.

In a tournament where spinners have abounded, West Indies coach Gus Logie rotated his four slow men to strangle the Sri Lankan middle-order.

The West Indies were ever mindful of the fact that Pakistan could deny them a place if they could take a bonus point from India.

Logie had some anxious moments before being informed by CricInfo that his team were through, largely thanks to his spin quartet.

West Indies manager Courtenay Daley said, "All the spinners were getting help from the wicket, so we thought we'd try and exploit that."

Strangely it was Sri Lanka, the home of Muttiah Muralitharan, that struggled against spin; while the fast bowling factory - the West Indies, lost wickets to pace.

Logie suggests that private ownership of pitches in the West Indies has caused them to be neglected, thus lessening their pace. This has meant fewer players wanting to be fast bowlers, and more spinners on the scene.

"Not too quick," he called to his captain Narsingh Deonarine, who bowled 13 mid-innings overs for 18 runs in tandem with Shane Shillingford.

Shillingford took one for 25, Deonarine two for 20, and Lorenzo Ingram one for 23 in their 10-over spells. Alcindo Holder also spun out a Sri Lankan.

"The thing is that I don't think that wickets are laid over enough to get quicker, so it just gets docile after a while," commented Daley on the demise of the fast bowler in the West Indies.

Earlier, the West Indies collapsed, losing their last eight wickets for 48 after being poised at 154/2 in the 37th over. Following the second drinks break three West Indies wickets fell in two overs in a familiar sounding crash.

"We are very worried about it," Daley said. "We are not holding our heads and we are causing pressure to be built against us rather than putting pressure on the fielding side. It is something the coach will be working on."

Left-handed Deonarine, the 18-year-old West Indies captain, kept his team in the game with 65 off 95 balls, and helped set a defendable score of 202 all out. Thirteen balls remained to be bowled when the last wicket went down.

The West Indies, only other contributor, man of the match Donovan Pagon, who looked odds on to score the first century of the Super League, was bowled by Sri Lanka captain Dhammika Niroshan, swinging a mighty drive across the line when on 92.

At that point a good sign for the West Indies was that when Pagon has failed, against Australia and India in this tournament, his team has lost. In the four West Indian victories the Jamaican right-hander has now hit 378 runs at an average of 126.

Sri Lankan coach Brendon Kuruppu was as aware as anyone as to whom the main threat to his team's place in the tournament was.

Pagon was the man who was causing Kuruppu to worry, and with 14 boundaries in 107 balls he was right to be nervous.

Daley said: "Pagon played a very splendid innings and hit the ball into spaces well. Deonarine has been out of touch, but he showed that now he's coming back and getting better and better."

The West Indies bowled Australia out for 200 in their group game a week ago, but were dismissed for 158 in the run chase.

"It was close, so we hope that if we can improve on how we batted against them and bowl similarly it will be a good game. Australia has been playing very good cricket," he concluded.