Angelo Mathews castled Xavier Marshall, Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Bravo in the 1st over of the Windies chase during the 2009 World T20 semi-final, laying the foundation for a Sri Lankan win.
Sri Lanka had struggled to 158, on the back of a magnificent 96 not out from TM Dilshan, but with a line-up where Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan batted in the top 7, it was going to take a special bowling performance to give Sri Lanka a shot at making the final.
Read: Jayawardene into the record books
Enter Angelo Davis Mathews. After hitting a six and a four to end Sri Lanka’s innings with some momentum, he was thrown the ball to open the attack.
Watch Mathews demolish the Windies top order
Even as a 22-year-old, he was not quick, but on that day, bowling in his 1st World Cup knockout game, it didn’t matter.
His 1st victim was Xavier Marshall. The right hander’s indecisive footwork saw him chopping one onto the leg stump.
Lendl Simmons played all around one two balls later, his thigh pad dragging the ball back towards the wickets and yeah, Mathews got the leg stump once again!
One wicket was great, two got the Sri Lankan fans off their seats. Three sent them into raptures.
Read: A super over from a super bowler
Another indecisive West Indian right-hander, this time Dwyane Bravo. Caught between leaving the ball and playing a drive, Bravo only managed to get the inside edge onto the middle stump.
West Indies 1st over went for 1 run, Mathews sent back 3 batters and pretty much broke the back of the chase.
Sri Lanka ended up winning by 57 runs, signaling the start of a golden era in ICC T20 competitions for the Men in Blue, who would go onto enter 3 finals in the next 4 tournaments.
