West Indies have one foot in the semi-finals, as they eased to a seven-wicket victory over a disappointing Sri Lanka unit in Bengaluru on Sunday.
The victory was set up by some excellent spin bowling from Samuel Badree, and after beating England in their opener, a win against South Africa or Afghanistan should be enough to see them through to the semi-finals.
What will be of some concern, however, is a hamstring injury to Chris Gayle which prevented him from opening the batting. What it did show though was that they were capable of winning without his services. He was ready to be the next batsman to walk out, but the extent of his injury will be closely monitored ahead of the clash against the Proteas on Friday.
Sri Lanka, the defending champions, were never really in the contest, but they had themselves to blame with a couple of simple catches that were put down at crucial stages. The defeat leaves them with a mountain to climb. They will in all likelihood need to beat both England and South Africa, and then hope net run rate works in their favour.
Carlos Brathwaite saw off the dangerous TM Dilshan (12) early on, but Badree soon took over as Sri Lanka went from 31-1 to 47-5. Badree finished with 3-12 from his four overs, while Sulieman Benn was impressive without much reward, conceding just 13 runs from his allotted overs. Sri Lanka battled to 122-9.
Andre Fletcher then showed his worth in the absence of Gayle with a blistering 84, and there were nervy moments as Johnson Charles, Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin, but Fletcher powered through and Andre Russell played the supporting act with 20, to take their side over the line.
