Sri Lanka’s unbeaten run in CWC23 qualifier continues

Saturday, 8 July 2023 00:26 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka defeated West Indies by 8 wickets to end the Super Six stage and kept their unbeaten run in the qualifying tournament intact.

Sri Lanka rattled West Indies in their Super Six encounter, with the spinners doing the majority of the damage. The West Indies top-order had no answer in reply to the spin of Maheesh Theekshana, with Brandon King, Shamarh Brooks and skipper Shai Hope all perishing against the tricky spinner.

Matheesha Pathirana and Dushmantha Hemantha then got in on the act, getting the wickets of dangerous batters Johnson Charles and Nicholas Pooran. West Indies would be further bamboozled against spin as Sahan Arachchige cleaned up Kyle Mayers, which was followed by Hemantha scalping his second by trapping Roston Chase lbw.

This left a massive rebuild job upon Keacy Carty and Romario Shepherd, as West Indies were meandering along at 127/7 at the 30-over mark.

Carty first paired with Shepherd to take West Indies past the 150-run mark and then brought up his half-century. Even as wickets fell at the other end, Carty pressed on pushing his team towards a respectable total.

He was eventually the last wicket to fall on 87, with West Indies getting bowled out for 243. Theekshana was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka with impressive figures of 4/34.

In reply, Sri Lanka started strongly with Nissanka showing intent right from the start. The target did not look daunting for a team of Sri Lanka’s calibre as both openers safely negotiated the initial tricky period.

Karunaratne played the perfect fiddle to Nissanka’s aggression and the duo went past 100 runs quite easily. Nissanka got to his 10th ODI fifty in the process.

West Indies were poor in the field and dropped a couple of catches granting the openers reprieves as the Lankans continued with freedom. They put up 190 runs – the highest opening stand in the CWC23 Qualifier.

Just went it looked like the Lankans would breeze through with all 10 wickets in hand, Kevin Sinclair struck to remove Nissanka. However, the opener had brought up his third ODI hundred just three overs before.

Akeal Hosein removed the other opener Karunaratne for 83 but the pair of Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama ensured Sri Lanka safely crossed the line without further hiccups.