A patient ton by Darren Bravo guided the West Indies to another comfortable 5-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Antigua. The hosts thereby claimed the series 3-0.
Bravo’s ton came after the Windies were reduced to 39/2 inside the 1st first powerplay, with Suranga Lakmal and Wanindu Hasaranga both picking up wickets. This is was the first time in the series that Sri Lanka were able to make breakthroughs early on in the innings and for a while thye did manage to keep a lid on things.
However, the failure to keep picking up wickets yet again was their biggest problem as Bravo and Shai Hope patiently bided their time to accumulate the runs required. Hope was at his brilliant best once again and went to his 6th consecutive 50+ score in ODIs – all of them have come against Sri Lanka.
Bravo played out a large number of odt balls but more importantly, managed to ensure that the hosts did not lose wickets consistently and alongside Hope, added a match-winning partnership of 109 for the 3rd wicket. Whatever pressure that built on Bravo due to his scoring rate was eased when Kieron Pollard came to the crease, as the right-hander eased his way through to 53.
The Sri Lankan bowling looked below-par once again, with none of the bowlers looking threatening and only 274 to defend, so it was always going to be a case of Windies getting to the target if they managed to bat long enough.
Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka’s batting was once again derailed by the Windies spinners as they slumped to 151/6 before a brilliant partnership between Hasaranga and Ashen Bandara dragged them to 274. Hasaranga once again proved that he is one for the future in limited overs cricket, with a career-high 80 off 60 deliveries. The knock was even more impressive when considering that he seemed to pick up a hamstring niggle early on in his innings.
With wickets falling consistently, Bandara was forced to be cautious but he too provided some lusty blows in the latter half of Sri Lanka’s innings to finish with his 2nd ODI 50 in 3 games.
Overall the Windies will be happy with their performance, particularly of their top order, where their 1,2 and 3 batters made tons. They will also be ecstatic to gain a full 30 points towards the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League from a side which they would have expected to put up a bigger fight.
Sri Lanka on the other hand have a lot to ponder in the coming months, having been unable to secure any points.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danushka Gunathilaka | c Fabian Allen b Alzarri Joseph | 36 | 38 | 6 | 0 | 94.74 |
| Dimuth Karunarathne | b Jason Mohammed | 31 | 46 | 1 | 1 | 67.39 |
| Pathum Nissanka | lbw b Akeal Hosein | 24 | 25 | 3 | 0 | 96.00 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | b Akeal Hosein | 16 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 59.26 |
| Dasun Shanaka | b Akeal Hosein | 22 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 81.48 |
| Ashen Bandara | not out | 55 | 74 | 3 | 1 | 74.32 |
| Thisara Perera | run out () | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 75.00 |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | not out | 80 | 60 | 7 | 3 | 133.33 |
| Extras | 7 (b 0 , lb 2 , nb 1, w 4, pen 0) |
| Total | 274/6 (50 Overs, RR: 5.48) |
| Did not bat | Suranga Lakmal, Lakshan Sandakan, Asitha Fernando, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jason Holder | 6 | 0 | 53 | 0 | 8.83 | |
| Alzarri Joseph | 10 | 0 | 51 | 1 | 5.10 | |
| Jason Mohammed | 10 | 0 | 49 | 1 | 4.90 | |
| Anderson Phillip | 6 | 0 | 43 | 0 | 7.17 | |
| Akeal Hosein | 10 | 0 | 33 | 3 | 3.30 | |
| Fabian Allen | 8 | 0 | 43 | 0 | 5.38 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evin Lewis | b Suranga Lakmal | 13 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 81.25 |
| Shai Hope | c Suranga Lakmal b Thisara Perera | 64 | 72 | 3 | 2 | 88.89 |
| Jason Mohammed | b Wanindu Hasaranga | 8 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 61.54 |
| Darren Bravo, | c Dimuth Karunarathne b Suranga Lakmal | 102 | 132 | 5 | 4 | 77.27 |
| Nicholas Pooran | lbw b Danushka Gunathilaka | 15 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 187.50 |
| Kieron Pollard | not out | 53 | 42 | 4 | 1 | 126.19 |
| Jason Holder | not out | 14 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 140.00 |
| Extras | 7 (b 2 , lb 0 , nb 2, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 276/5 (48.3 Overs, RR: 5.69) |
| Did not bat | Fabian Allen, Anderson Phillip, Alzarri Joseph, Akeal Hosein, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suranga Lakmal | 9.3 | 1 | 56 | 2 | 6.02 | |
| Asitha Fernando | 8 | 0 | 62 | 0 | 7.75 | |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | 10 | 0 | 49 | 1 | 4.90 | |
| Thisara Perera | 5 | 0 | 27 | 1 | 5.40 | |
| Danushka Gunathilaka | 6 | 0 | 28 | 1 | 4.67 | |
| Lakshan Sandakan | 10 | 2 | 52 | 0 | 5.20 | |
