Sri Lanka, Ireland win WT20 warm-ups

The action in Sri Lanka got underway on Thursday with warm-up matches ahead of the World Twenty20 giving teams the chance to get to grips with the conditions on the sub-continent.

The action in Sri Lanka got underway on Thursday, with warm-up matches ahead of the World Twenty20 giving teams the chance to get to grips with the conditions on the sub-continent.

The first of these games was between the West Indies and Sri Lanka, which the home side easily won by nine wickets, thanks to half-centuries from Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

The Windies batted first and scored 132 for six, playing without stars like Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Kemar Roach. It was left to Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Smith to open the innings, and neither could reach double figures, thanks to a double strike by Nuwan Kulasekara.

Johnson Charles added 30 off 26 balls, while Darren Bravo and Kieron Pollard added 29 and 28 not out respectively. It never looked like being enough, though, as the veteran opposition batsmen reached the target with more than four overs to spare.

The other game saw Ireland get off to a winning start, beating Zimbabwe by 54 runs. Ireland batted first and made 181 for five in their 20 overs, with Niall O'Brien making 62 off 39 balls and his brother, Kevin, adding 30 off 14.

Chris Mpofu was the standout bowler for the Zimbabweans, taking three of the five wickets, including William Porterfield, Ed Joyce and Gary Wilson, all of whom could have added valuable runs had they stuck around.

The Zimbabwean chase never got off the ground, with eight wickets falling and only Hamilton Masakadza making a score of note. He made 44 in the top order off 27 balls, but once he fell with the score on 74, it collapsed from there.

Zimbabwe lost their next five wickets for nine runs, and only cameos from Prosper Utseya and Ray Price at the death pushed the score past 100 to 127 for eight.

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