THE West Indies’ World Cup campaign effectively ended last night in the despair of narrow defeat, by six runs to Sri Lanka, under the floodlights of the same Newlands ground where it began with such high expectations following their similarly close opening match victory by three runs over South Africa.
Sri Lanka’s triumph, set up by Chaminda Vaas’ all-round, Man of the Match performance, kept them in contention for a spot in the last six although they have a tough match against South Africa in Durban on Monday.
The West Indies, who end their first round against Kenya in Kimberly on Tuesday, can only survive through an unlikely set of results in the remaining group match. Their abandoned, rained-out match against Bangladesh that obliged them to share the four points they would certainly have got has been a decisive factor.
The frustration of the loss was, at one and the same, accentuated yet alleviated by an effort of rare and raw courage by Ramnaresh Sarwan.
At 22, the youngest man on the field showed the mettle of a true champion. Badly injured earlier in his innings, he returned to almost snatch an incredible win from the jaws of certain defeat.
He was felled by a blow to the side of the helmet off a no-ball bouncer from the big fast bowler Dilhara Fernando’s second delivery when 10 and lay motionless on the pitch for fully 10 minutes while anxious medical personnel attended him.
He was stretchered off the hushed ground and ambulanced to the nearby Claremont Hospital for a precautionary x-ray. At the time, there could be no realistic thought he would resume his innings.
But, cleared of any serious damage by the x-ray and sufficiently recovered, he sped back to Newlands in time to return to the middle to help a cause that was all but hopeless.
As he walked out for a second time, pointedly wearing a cap and not a helmet, he was given a standing ovation from the crowd of close to 20,000.
On the way. he passed top-scorer Shivnarine Chanderpaul, seventh man out for a composed 65 off 90 balls to a catch at long-on off Aravinda deSilva’s flighted off-spin.
At 160 for seven, another 60 were required off 7.5 overs and only the three fast bowlers remained to keep him company. It was, it seemed, a mission impossible.
Sarwan, his feet moving with a ballet dancer’s dexterity and his wrists working his bat through the ball with precise certainty, quickly turned it into the possible.
He stroked Sanath Jayasuirya’s flat left-arm spin for a six and a four over extra-cover and then took three runs to third man off successive balls in the 47th over. He launched deSilva for another six over long-on in the 48th and took two from a dropped catch at deep square-leg.
Suddenly, the West Indies required a feasible 16 off the last two overs but the accomplished support Sarwan needed was long since back in the pavilion.
He simply couldn’t do it on his own.
Muttiah Muralitheran, the wily off-spinner whose 205 One-day Internationals had prepared him several times over for such challenges, allowed only two from the 49th over and the fast bowler Pulshthi Gunawarne, bravely entrusted with the last over by captain Sanath Jayasuriya, kept it down to seven.
Even before his last delivery, the Sri Lankans were celebrating, just as the West Indians had done in their last over win by three runs over South Africa almost three weeks earlier.
After restricting Sri Lanka to a manageable 228 for six off their 50 overs under clear blue skies, the West Indies were under seige once Vaas had removed Wavell Hinds and Brian Lara by the time he was half-way through his fifth over.
Hinds, on-driving, sent a steepling catch to mid-off from the leading edge and Lara, restricted to a single from 22 balls, fell to an edged catch to the keeper off a slower ball.
Sarwan and Chanderpaul were settling things down when Sarwan was poleaxed at 62 for two.
After the lengthy delay while he was attended to, it became 62 for three as captain Carl Hooper, presumably disturbed by Sarwan’s condition, was plainly lbw, pinned on the back foot by Fernando’s next ball.
The left-handed pair of Chris Gayle, hitting the bad balls with ferocious power and defending capably against the good ones, and Chanderpaul brought the equation back to equality with a partnership of 59 from 14 overs before Vaas came back to wreck more havoc in his second spell.
In his second over, Gayle fell lbw for 59 and Ridley Jacobs, promoted over Ricardo Powell, was ruled caught behind third ball for 0 by umpire Dave Orchard when all he hit was his boot, not the ball.
Powell, clueless against Muralitheran at the opposite end, missed an expansive drive at a sharp off-break and was bowled so that three wickets fell for one run from seven balls.
That seemingly sealed the West Indies fate but, by now, Sarwan had recovered and was on his way back.
Vasbert Drakes held on long enough with Chanderpaul for him to get himself ready but Chanderpaul’s dismissal was decisive. Had Sarwan had his fellow Guyanese as companion, the target might just have been reached.
Drakes and Dillon did as well as could be expected of them but, in the end, Sarwan couldn’t quite bring off what would have been the game’s latest fairytale ending.
Sri Lanka’s total seemed inadequate on a good pitch whose behaviour, unlike a couple of earlier day-night matches, did not vary under the lights.
They were set back by the early run out of Marvan Atapattu, athletically completed by Pedro Collins on his follow-through, and the dangerous Aravinda deSilva, in confusion with Jayasuriya befitting schoollboys not players with nearly 600 one-day internationals between them.
The West Indies bowlers, with Merv Dillon and Vasbert Drakes to the fore with hardly a bad ball, kept them in check but they were betrayed by ragged ground fielding that accounted for at least 15 unearned runs.
The usually free-scoring Jayasuriya required 99 balls for an uncharactertic 66 that was ended by a top-edged sweep to deep mid-wicket off Gayle’s steady off-spin and it took an unbeaten, left-handed partnership of 50 off the last 42 balls between Russel Arnold and Vaas to boost it at the end
Vaas blasted 28 off 25 balls and returned to have an immediate effect with the ball, raising his tally in the tournament to 16 wickets, the most by anyone, and claiming the gold watch as Man of the Match .
Sarwan was close to taking it away from him and the match away from Sri Lanka. Close but not close enough.