Disappointing and sad to lose via DL method: Sammy

Mirpur: A dejected West Indies captain Darren Sammy on Thursday said it was "disappointing" and "sad" for the defending champions to exit from the ICC World Twenty20 after losing to Sri Lanka via Duckworth-Lewis method in the rain-marred semifinal at the Shere Bangla Stadium here.

A dominant Sri Lanka made it to summit clash for the third time knocking out West Indies by 27 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method after thundershowers stopped proceedings in the 14th over of the second innings.

"Disappointing to come out of the tournament like this, but credit to Sri Lanka. We have had a good run in the tournament, and it`s sad we got knocked out because of D/L," Sammy said after the match.

"That`s life, but we got to move on and plan for the next tournament. (Chris) Gayle and (Dwayne) Smith have a clear idea on how they want to play. We started very well, but their offspinner (Sachithra Senanayake) bowled very well to Gayle and Smith. From there on, we were behind the eight ball," he said.

"I was looking forward to raise the trophy, but I am now just going to sit and watch and hope that it`s not one-sided. Best of luck to other teams."

Batting first in the first semi-final, Sri Lanka scored an impressive 160 for six riding on important contributions from Angelo Mathews (40) and Lahiru Thirimanne (45). In reply, West Indies were 80 for four in 13.5 overs when a storm followed by heavy downpour ruled out any chances of a game.

The D/L par score at that point of time was 107 and the Caribbeans were well short of the target, struggling at 80 for four in 13.5 overs.

Asked why Dwayne Bravo didn`t bowl today, Sammy said: "Bravo had a side strain (that`s why he didn`t bowl). In our team, except (denesh) Ramdin everyone bowls. (Andre) Russell had been bowling well and today was probably an off day.

"We tried to restrict team to below 150. They were off to a flier, but we did well to peg them back. They got a few more than we expected. Normally (Krishmar) Santokie and Russell bowls very well at the back end, but today was just one of those days. Sri Lanka played very well."

Asked whether they backed themselves to chase down the challenging target, Sammy said: "We came here, we fought really hard. There was no panic in the dressing room. We back ourselves to get 12 runs an over."

Winning captain Lasith Malinga said even though there were forceasts of rain, he never hoped to win the match in such a manner.

"We weren`t looking for that (rain). We were only looking towards a win. We were looking to get the batsmen out early. We got a good start before losing our way in the middle, then Angelo (Mathews) played very well to push it to 160.

"Before the rain we knew they were behind us and we just wanted to stay above them on run rate," the Sri Lanka skipper said.

Asked about his expectation from Sunday`s final, Malinga said: "Everyone is looking forward to the big game. We don`t have much pressure and we are not thinking about our opponent. We are just thinking about how to improve our own game."

Man of the Match Angelo Mathews, too, said with 160 on the board, the islanders backed themselves to come out winners.

"I am really happy that we are in the finals. After the first half we got to know that there was a chance of rain, but we didn`t play to that. We knew they had some big hitters. Lasith then made those two strikes to get us back in the game. But with 160 on the board, we knew we had the bowling for it," he said.