Cricket - Windies sweep into semi-finals

West Indies took the defence of their World Twenty20 title into the semi-final stage after a cut-throat 84-run win against Pakistan in Dhaka.

Pakistan were bowled out for 82 from 17.5 overs to send them out at the group stage of a World Twenty20 for the first time ever.

Windies spinners Samuel Badree (three for 10) and Sunil Narine (three for 16) spun the champions to victory after man-of-the-match Dwayne Bravo (46) and skipper Darren Sammy (42 not out) lifted them to 166 for six.

West Indies will meet Group One winners Srilanka in the last-four at the Shere Bangla Stadium on Thursday.

Both sides knew defeat would spell the end of their campaign, and West Indies took control in the final five overs of their innings as Sammy and Bravo suddenly started hitting the ball to all parts .

West Indies had stuttered to the 15-over mark at 84 for four, but then took 82 from the final 30 balls to end up on 166 for six.

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Sammy and Bravo did nearly all the damage in a 72-run stand.

They hit their stride in the 18th and 19th overs - which cost 21 and 24 runs respectively - as the game belatedly stepped up several gears.

After Umar Gul coughed up 21 from his final over, mystery spinner Saaed Ajmal then suffered even more.

Bravo belted him for successive maximums before Sammy joined in on the act to bring back memories of Michael Hussey's match-winning attack on Ajmal for Australia in the 2010 semi-final.

Pakistan's hopes of returning to that stage, for the fifth successive tournament, were effectively over when they slumped to 13 for four in repl y.

Krishmar Santokie (two for nine) trapped Ahmed Shehzad lbw with the first ball of the innings, before Badree claimed the next three wickets in quick time to wreck Pakistan's chase.

Sohaib Maqsood and Shahid Afridi supplied some resistance in the middle order, but both were stumped off Narine for 18 as the required run rate ballooned out of reach.