Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Thursday Nov 21, 2024
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Pathum Nissanka hits through the offside during his knock of 54
Dunith Wellalage took three wickets on his T20I debut
Charith Asalanka celebrates a wicket
West Indies Captain Rowman Powell top scored with 20
Sa’adi Thawfeeq reporting
from Dambulla
Beaten quite convincingly in the first match, Sri Lanka came roaring back in the second T20I to defeat West Indies by a thumping margin of 73 runs and level the three-match series 1-all with one match to play at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium yesterday.
The match was played on the same surface as the first T20I, but with the rains ceasing and drying it, the spinners who couldn’t get much assistance out of it on Sunday, found it very much to their liking as the ball gripped and turned much to the discomfort of the West Indies who were bowled out for 89, their lowest total against Sri Lanka.
Undoubtedly, Sri Lanka are always a force to reckon with when there’s turn and grip available on the surface and their spinners once again proved it. The West Indies’ batsmen’s difficulties against quality spin bowling on a slightly sluggish pitch surfaced again. They were never in the chase and were blown away by the Lankan spinners especially debutant Dunith Wellalage. The left-arm spinner had spectacular figures of 3/9 off his 4 overs. His spell put West Indies on the back foot early on and there was no recovery from that as skipper Charith Asalanka kept bringing on one spinner after another including himself and they all tasted success.
West Indies Captain Rovman Powell along with Alzarri Joseph put up some resistance to lift them from 40-7 to their final total to ensure that it would not be an embarrassing defeat. But yet for all it was still a big loss and one that exposed West Indies’ batting against the turning ball.
The toss played an important role and Sri Lanka who won it for the first time did not have any hesitation in batting first and putting up a challenging total of 162-5 especially on a slightly sluggish surface. Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis laid the foundation with an opening partnership of 77 off 65 balls, despite the ball gripping and turning square for Gudakesh Motie in his first over inside the powerplay.
Nissanka changed the flow of the game by savaging 25 runs off an over from Shamar Joseph and Kusal Mendis also found his rhythm and scored a few boundaries. Motie bowled probingly, beating the bat on several occasions but didn’t get any reward for his efforts.
Shamar Springer got the better of Kusal Mendis, but Kusal Perera kept the momentum going with a cameo knock of 24 off 16 balls. Player of the Match Nissanka held up one end and scored a vital half-century – 54 off 49 balls (9 fours, 1 six). Following his dismissal West Indies bounced back in the latter stages of the innings with Roston Chase and Romario Shepherd brilliant at the death allowing only 47 off the last 6 overs. Sri Lanka’s total would have been much less had West Indies not conceded a number of extras (10 wides) and put down a couple of catches and some misfields, which allowed the host to come up with a total that was not easy to chase down on a turning and gripping surface.
The third and final T20I will be played at the same venue on Thursday.
