Cricket: Legends Road Safety Series: SL beat Windies; meet India on Saturday’s final

Sri Lankan Legends on Friday night (30) gave another reason to be happy when they beat the West Indies by 14-runs and booking their second straight  - Road Safety World Series - final against Indian Legends, to be played on Saturday (01), at the same venue in Raipur, India. 

The finalists would be an exact rematch of the opening edition of the Road Safety World Series, where the Asian rivals renewed their cricketing rivalry, and India becoming the inaugurual champions. 

At the semis, led by former captain Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lankan were in a spot of bother when they were five down for 83. However, little late-order contributions propelled them to a competitive score of 172 for nine. 

The Carribean men, captain by the great Brian Lara, were off to a hopeful start. The foundation for this mainly laid by Narsingh Deonarine's 39-ball 63 (4 sixes' and 6 boundaries) that threatened to play a spoilsport for their counteparts. 

However, the blistering opening  pair during their hey days, Sanath Jayasuriya and Dilshan, struck with the ball, taking three victims in total, and disrupting Windies's momentum.

Nuwan Kulasekera was pick of the bowlers with 2-26 and an excellent economy rate of six-and-a-half.

The final, islander's second shot at regaining the title and returning the dues, starts at 7.30 p.m., Sri Lankan time.  

Chief scores:

SL: 172 for nine (20) (Ishan Jayaratne 31, Sanath Jayasuriya 26, Jeewan Mendis 25, Devendra Bishoo 2/17) beat

WI: 158 for seven (20) (Narsingh Deonarine 63, Nuwan Kulasekera 2/26, S. Jayasuriya 2/26, T. Dilshan 1/13)