In front of a delirious packed stadium Mahela Jayawardene, already a national hero, led his side to the final of the World T20. Sri Lanka won on a tired pitch at the R Premadasa Stadium, which is fast becoming batsman-hostile.Suddenly sixes have become a rarity again. There was only one in this game but the wining score, 139-4 – an odd one in a Twenty20 match – was enough to defeat Pakistan.Jayawardene does not miss many tricks. Here he selected his experienced left-arm spinner, Rangana Herath, for just the third time in the tournament. Herath repaid this faith by taking three wickets, including the Pakistan captain, Mohammad Hafeez, who proved the greatest threat. He turned the ball, not prodigiously, but enough.When defending such a modest target nothing can be taken for granted. Pakistan needed 32 from their final three overs but Jayawardene's other spinner, Ajantha Mendis, stayed cool and despite the presence at the crease of Umar Akmal and Umar Gul, the heroes in Pakistan's defeat of South Africa, the home side prevailed without too much bother.But there were signs of nerves even among the veterans of the Sri Lankan side. Lasith Malinga bowled well enough, delivering a succession of devious slower balls, but he has seldom been so butterfingered, dropping a simple catch and spurning the chance of a run-out. Semi-finals do that to the most gnarled of cricketers.So Sri Lanka will face either Australia or West Indies in Sunday's final. And they will not be at all disappointed that the pitch at the Premadasa is showing inevitable signs of wear and tear. Sri Lankan batsmen tend to know what to do when the ball is turning and stopping. So do their bowlers.It was obvious after the women's semi-final that batting might be a hazardous occupation but this was unlikely to intimidate the likes of Jayawardene. The Sri Lankan captain – yes, he did toss up this time – innovated cleverly from the start having decided to bat first. But there were far more reverse sweeps and reverse hits from Jayawardenethan normal, a hint that this surface would not encourage silky strokeplay. Sri Lanka were determined not to be too greedy. There were moments when they did not even seem hungry. While Jayawardene prospered Tillakaratne Dilshan, so fluent earlier in the tournament, struggled. No wicket was lost until the 11th over when Jayawardene was caught trying to paddle a delivery from Shahid Afridi, by which time there were 63 runs on the board.Kumar Sangakkara was skittish by his standards but unusually Dilshan never was. Sri Lanka kept waiting for the acceleration but they could not find it, despite Saeed Ajmal not being at his best. Eventually Dilshan might have been relieved to be given out lbw in the 18th over for 35 from 43 balls. The home side needed a fruitful final over, from which they scored sixteen runs courtesy of Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera to bring anything approaching a smile to their captain. A couple of hours later just about everyone in the stadium was beaming.
Sri Lanka 139-4; Pakistan 123-7
Sri Lanka win by 16 runs
