West Indies are no one-man band

The popular perception of the West Indian team going into this tournament was that if you got Chris Gayle out cheaply you would beat them.

Yet here the West Indies are at the semi-final stage, with a relatively minimal impact from their skipper up to now.

A succession of Gayle's charges have come to the fore when needed and it will be as a unit that the West Indies will have to succeed if they are to defeat Sri Lanka in the second semi-final at the Oval on Friday.

Even when Gayle made an explosive entrance into the tournament - 88 off 50 balls v Australia - it was fast bowler Jerome Taylor who had put the skids under the Aussies with two wickets in the opening over of the match (including captain Ricky Ponting).

Thereafter, it was Fidel Edwards (3-24) and Dwayne Bravo (66 not out from 36 balls) who unseated India and then experienced batting pair Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul saw their team through in a tricky run-chase against England.

There is no better venue for the Caribbean side to be taking on the Sri Lankans than the Oval, as the south London ground has become their spiritual English home over the years - from Michael Holding destroying England in 1976, to completing a 'Blackwash' of the Test series against the same team in 1984, through to famous one-day wins against England to win the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004 and, most recently, on Monday to reach the last four of this ICC World Twenty20.

West Indians will be banking on their nature flare to dominate against their next opponent, a side they lost narrowly to in a high-scoring encounter at Trent Bridge in the first group stage.

Off-spinners Ajantha Mendis (the joint-second highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 11) and Muttiah Muralitharan have proved difficult to combat for all batsmen to date - including Friday's rival.

West Indies vice-captain Denesh Ramdin has vowed his top order will take the attack to the slow bowlers when they get a second opportunity against them in the competition.

"It's very rare you get two world-class spinners like this in the same side," said Ramdin.

"We want to get on top of them early so their captain has to take them off and bring them on later, so our plan is to get on top of them as they come on to bowl.

"Their bowling line-up is quite tricky with Murali, Mendis and [Lasith] Malinga but we have to try and back ourselves."

West Indies have one place in their starting XI to be finalised as pace bowler Fidel Edwards will have a late fitness test on the back problem that forced him out of the match against England.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka appear to have settled on their best line-up, having rotated seamers Isuru Udana and Nuwan Kulasekera throughout the tournament so far. The former is set to get the nod for the semi-final after taking 2-17 in his side's most recent match, against New Zealand.

Sri Lanka are one of two sides going into their semi-final with a 100% record (South Africa the other) following a hugely impressive passage through a tough first round group (that also featured Australia and West Indies) and the Super Eights.

Their batsmen have grabbed the headlines as the innovators of the tournament (see Tillakaratne Dilshan's flip over the wicketkeeper's head and Mahela Jayawardena's use of the back of the bat for examples) while the 'Three M's' in their bowling attack (Mendis, Muralitharan and Malinga) have wreaked havoc wherever they have gone.

Sri Lanka may start the Oval clash as favourites but West Indies have found the happy knack of producing a man for almost every occasion during this World Twenty20.

If history prevails, they will be toasting another hero at the Oval come Friday evening.