Pitch didn’t turn as much as we expected – Asalanka

Player of the Match Brandon King of the West Indies

• Too many runs in power play reason for defeat
• Second T20I at Dambulla today

Sa’adi Thawfeeq reporting from Dambulla

Sri Lanka’s preparation for the next T20 World Cup in 2026 where they will play part host with India got off to a losing start when they lost the first of three T20Is to West Indies by five wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

The loss in no way demeaned the team’s performance because West Indies after getting off to a blazing start – 74 in the power play and 114 in the first 10 overs chasing 180, were somewhat contained to the point that they scored their remaining 66 runs in 9.1 overs, as Sri Lanka fought back strongly to try and turn the result in their favour. They were unable to do that because of the large amount of runs they conceded in the power play.

“We gave away too many runs in the power play. That’s the reason for the defeat,” said Sri Lanka Captain Charith Asalanka. “As we move forward, we need to work on power play overs. We know that our best bowlers are coming after the sixth over. Sometimes even they can’t pull things back because too much damage had been done in the power play overs.”

West Indies openers Brandon King and Evin Lewis struck 12 fours and 2 sixes in the power play and a total of 14 fours and 5 sixes in their century partnership of 107 compared to the 21 fours and 4 sixes Sri Lanka hit in their entire innings.

King, who struck a sprightly 63 off 33 balls (11 fours, 1 six) to take the Player of the Match award said, “My role is to get the team off to a good start and it came off well. It was a good wicket as well. I am coming after an injury and tough to be out for a couple of months but feels good with the way I went about things today.”

“Chasing a score like 180 you need to have a good start and a good power play. Our instructions were clear. We were supposed to get off to a good start and go after the bowling. Glad it all paid off well.”

For Sri Lanka the plot didn’t work in their favour because of the intermittent rains that forced the ground staff to keep the wicket under covers for longer than expected thus nullifying the effect of the spinners. The wicket was not as dry as it should have been if it was exposed to the sun, thus the spinners on whom Sri Lanka were heavily reliant on were rendered ineffective with hardly any turn and bounce off the surface.

“We hoped that we would get pitches that turned a bit more. But I guess with the amount of rain that we got, it was tough for the ground staff,” said Asalanka. “The pitch was covered mostly to protect from rain. There was a bit of moisture on it. When we batted the ball seamed a bit. Hopefully, as we move forward, we will get pitches that turn a bit more.”

Sri Lanka have gone against playing an extra spinner in their line-up because according to Asalanka it would somewhat weaken their batting. He said that they were playing Chamindu Wickramasinghe as a batting all-rounder.  

“If you take the last T20I game against India, Chamindu bowled four overs. That was a bonus. If he can get us two or three overs that’s great. Good, if we can get another spinner in, but if we do that, we will lack a bit of batting cover.”

Sri Lanka tried to sneak a few overs from Wickramasinghe but that strategy backfired on them when his two overs cost 27 runs.

“That was an experiment we were trying to do,” said Asalanka. “We played with four specialist bowlers. We had three part-timers in Chamindu, Kamindu (Mendis) and myself. What I was trying to do was to get a few overs done with Chamindu. Disappointed that it didn’t work out. We expected the pitch to turn more than this. If that had happened Kamindu and I would have bowled a lot more.”

Wickramasinghe has come in place of Dasun Shanaka and is expected to play the role of an all-rounder. He is likely to be given a full run in the series, which means that playing an extra spinner is out of the equation.

Today’s contest is a must win game for Sri Lanka if they are to keep the series alive and hope to record their first bilateral series victory against the West Indies.