World T20: Watson makes amends after dropping Gayle

After a beginning that was at best low-key, the fourth World Twenty20 burst into life on the fifth evening with its first decent game. West Indies and Australia turned on some terrific hitting, in front of the first decent crowd for a game not involving the hosts, until it rained.

Australia were declared the winners by 17 runs. They had to score 92 from the last 65 balls, and were going at such a rate, on such a belter of a pitch, that it was theirs to lose.

Australia's only real mistake was to drop Chris Gayle at third man when he had scored four. West Indies lack technical expertise in their first three batsmen apart from Gayle, so dropping him was crucial, as Shane Watson soon realised.

The next nine balls after Gayle had been dropped were whacked for 32. Anything full to Gayle disappeared over long-on, anything short over mid-wicket. He hit four sixes, and was then matched by Marlon Samuels, his fellow Jamaican and stroller between the wickets.

After scoring 191, West Indies did not open their bowling with a spinner - Gayle would have done nicely - so David Warner had pace on the ball to play with, and he proceeded to out-Gayle Gayle with 28 in the first two overs.

Although Warner was then given out by Asad Rauf, Australia were kept ahead of the rate by their two senior batsmen, Watson and Mike Hussey. Watson made such amends for his drop that he was man of the abbreviated match.

Earlier, Stuart Broad, England's captain, had said the side that loses fewer wickets in the first six overs goes on to win 80 per cent of the time. To prove his point, West Indies lost two wickets in their first six overs, Australia only one.

A capacity crowd of 35,000 at Hambantota had earlier endured a depressing time as the tournament hosts were comfortably beaten by South Africa in a match ruined by rain.

Reduced to the almost farcical terms of seven overs per side, the match could barely have been more one sided as South Africa captain AB de Villiers led his team to a 32-run win. Both teams had already qualified for the Super Eights stage and De Villiers, who scored 30 from 13 balls, said: "Beating Sri Lanka is nice because they are one of the best teams in the world. Now we are ready to go for the Super Eights."

Sri Lanka badly missed star finger spinner Ajantha Mendis, who did not play because of side strain after returning figures of six for eight against Zimbabwe.