Windies hold nerve to reach semis

The experience of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul guided West Indies into the ICC World Twenty20 semi-finals after the top order had lost their head in a reduce chase of 80 in nine overs. A succession of wild shots meant West Indies were 45 for 5 in the sixth over, but Sarwan and Chanderpaul calmly added 37 in three overs to leave their team celebrating and the hosts going out.
Full report to follow
20 overs England 161 for 6 (Bopara 55, Pietersen 31) v West Indies
Ravi Bopara top-scored with 55, but England failed to explode during their innings

The winner moves into the semi-finals the loser goes out in this crucial contest and West Indies will be the happier side after holding England to 161 for 6. Ravi Bopara hit an elegant 55 off 47 balls and Kevin Pietersen threatened something special before being cut-off in his prime, but the innings stalled in the latter stages amid heavy showers. The middle order couldn't find the boundary until Stuart Broad closed with 10 off the final two deliveries
All was looking good for the home side as Bopara and Pietersen added 56 in thrilling style, but England's middle order has been a failure throughout the tournament with a startling lack of acceleration. There wasn't a boundary from the 11th over until Broad swept the penultimate ball for four and straight drove the final delivery six as Sulieman Benn struggled with a wet ball. To add further intrigue, the rain returned with West Indies knowing a no result will send them into the semi-final.
West Indies were dealt an early blow when Fidel Edwards was ruled out moments before the toss with a back injury, which meant Chris Gayle had to adjust his new-ball option. Instead of hitting England with pace he went with the two gentler options of Darren Sammy and Kieron Pollard and the latter struck in his first over when Luke Wright's huge top edge was well taken by Denesh Ramdin.
Wright has failed to build on his promising start to the tournament, but it's the nature of the role he plays and meant Pietersen was at the crease early. His innings started in style when he pulled his first ball dismissively through midwicket and flicked his second past short fine-leg.
Pietersen has been in bristling form during this tournament since returning from his Achilles injury and the eye-catching feature of his play has been the intent that he has begun each innings. However, anything Pietersen produced Bopara could match and two on-drives were has technically correct as you could imagine.
West Indies' ground-fielding again produced some shoddy moments and with a thin-looking attack on offer this was England's chance to amass a large total. The pair took 14 off Jerome Taylor's first over and when Lendl Simmons went for two fours off his first four deliveries the partnership was building at a rapid rate. But just when something monstrous was in the offing for Pietersen he tried to paddle Simmons over the leg side and picked out Andre Fletcher at deep square-leg. It was a shot that brought him a boundary the ball before, but it proved one risk too many.
Owais Shah began with good intent as he opened the face to pick up his first boundary through short third man and then flicked an extravagant six over fine leg against Taylor. Again, though, with another stand forming, West Indies grabbed a breakthrough when Shah was brilliantly caught at deep midwicket by a flying Fletcher as he intercepted a fiercely hit pull.
After deciding to leave out Dimitri Mascarenhas in favour of Adil Rashid, England were backing on their top order to come good and it also left them short of batsmen capable of clearing the boundary. Bopara went to his first fifty of the tournament from 43 balls but fell before a late charge when he basically missed a straight ball from Gayle.
The looming downpour then arrived, sending the players scurrying, and meant England had to start again in the final overs. Dwayne Bravo was superb at the death with his slower balls and yorkers, trapping Paul Collingwood on the sweep, and it was as though England were playing with hollow bats.
Gayle gambled on using Benn at the death and the plan worked well until the last two deliveries which just offered England a semblance of momentum. They have eight more than they managed against India, but Gayle is capable of making any target look small.