The World T20 had its first shock on Monday when last edition’s semi-finalists Australia were knocked out of the tournament after suffering a six-wicket loss to Sri Lanka in Trent Bridge. The win also meant that the West Indies are through to the Super Eights.

Chasing 160 to start their World Cup campaign on a winning note, Sri Lanka overhauled the target in 19 overs. Kumar Sangakkara, who was captaining Sri Lanka for the first time, saw his team through with an unbeaten 55 off 42 balls. Australia never really looked like winning the game at any stage, though they did seem to have creaked the door open with the two wickets of Tillakaratne Dilshan (53 off 32) and Mahela Jayawardene (9 off 12). Sri Lanka’s run-rate dropped a little, but with Sangakkara out in the middle, still seemed to have the game under control. The game was as good as gone for the Aussies in the 15th over when Sangakkara took 16 runs off Nathan Hauritz.

While Sangakkara finished the job, the successful run-chase was set up the impressive Dilshan. Another one of those players who seem to have improved leaps and bounds after playing the Indian Premier League, Dilshan played just about every shot in the book, and some out of it too, in his 32-ball blitzkrieg. A remarkable 40 off his 53 runs came through hits to the fence.

Earlier, it was Ajantha Mendis’s trickery that stopped Australia from scoring a big total. The spinner scalped three wickets for 20 in his four overs, applying the brakes on the Aussie innings.

Brief Score: Australia 159-9 in 20 overs (Johnson 28*, David Hussey 28, Ponting 25; Mendis 3/20, Malinga 3/36) lost to Sri Lanka 160-4 in 19 overs (Dilshan 53, Sangakkara 55*; Lee 2/39) by 6 wkts.

Teams:

Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), David Warner, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, David Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Nathan Hauritz.

Sri Lanka: Tillakaratne Dilshan (captain), Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Lasith Malinga, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Isuru Udana, Ajantha Mendis.