Off spinner Akila Dananjaya’s first hat-trick in international cricket was not enough for the visitors to earn victory as Kieron Pollard’s destructive 38 runs off 11 balls took hosts West Indies to a register 4 wicket win over Sri Lanka in the 1st T20I at Coolidge Cricket Ground, Antigua.
West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard won the toss and chose to bowl first with the hope of chasing down anything the visitors put on with their strong batting line-up. Sri Lanka fielded two debutants for this game with 22-year-old top-order batsman Pathum Nissanka and 22-year-old middle-order batsman Ashen Bandara making it into playing XI.
The left handed duo Danushka Gunathilaka and Niroshan Dickwella opened the innings for Sri Lanka but they could not get off to a solid start as the former was dismissed for just 4 runs in the 3rd over.
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Dickwella and Pathum Nissanka built a valuable 51-run partnership for the second wicket before the former was bowled for 33 runs off 29 balls.
At the half-way stage of the innings, Sri Lanka were 71 for 2 needing some serious acceleration in the second half but it wasn’t to be the case as the visitors kept losing wickets starting from Nissanka, the set batsman, who fell for 39 runs off 34 balls.
The senior players in the team Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and Thisara Perera departed without making too much of an impact as Sri Lanka were restricted to 131 runs for 9 wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
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The left arm seamer Obed McCoy was the pick of the bowlers for the hosts as he picked up 2 wickets for 25 runs while all the other five bowlers used took a wicket each.
Chasing a modest total of 132 runs to win, West Indies’ opening pair Evin Lewis and Lendl Simmons got off to a rollicking start putting up 52 runs in 3.2 overs. But off spinner Akila Dananjaya put Sri Lanka right back in the game taking a hat-trick of wickets dismissing Lewis, Chris Gayle and Nicholas Pooran in three consecutive deliveries.
However, Windies’ skipper Kieron Pollard took the attack to Dananjaya in his very next over smashing 6 sixes and became only the second player in the history of T20 international cricket to hit 6 sixes in an over after Yuvraj Singh.
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The leg spinner Wanindu Hasaranga picked up 2 quick wickets including the big fish Pollard giving Sri Lanka some belief in defending that total but the experienced duo Dwayne Bravo and Jason Holder did not panic as they managed to get over the line with 7 overs to spare.
With this win, West Indies take 1-0 lead in the 3-match T20I series. The second T20I between the two sides will be held on 6th March (3.30am Sri Lankan Time) at the same venue.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niroshan Dickwella | b Jason Holder | 33 | 29 | 3 | 1 | 113.79 |
| Danushka Gunathilaka | c Kieron Pollard b Kevin SinClair | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 66.67 |
| Pathum Nissanka | st Nicholas Pooran b Fabian Allen | 39 | 34 | 4 | 1 | 114.71 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | c Jason Holder b Obed McCoy | 11 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 110.00 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Lendl Simmons b Fidel Edwards | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 83.33 |
| Thisara Perera | c Dwayne Bravo b Obed McCoy | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | c Fabian Allen b Dwayne Bravo | 12 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 85.71 |
| Ashen Bandara | run out () | 10 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 166.67 |
| Akila Dananjaya | not out | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Dushmantha Chameera | run out () | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Extras | 5 (b 0 , lb 2 , nb 0, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 131/9 (20 Overs, RR: 6.55) |
| Did not bat | Nuwan Pradeep, |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-20 (2.6) Danushka Gunathilaka, 2-71 (9.6) Niroshan Dickwella, 3-83 (12.2) Pathum Nissanka, 4-96 (13.6) Angelo Mathews, 5-97 (14.1) Dinesh Chandimal, 6-106 (16.2) Thisara Perera, 7-111 (17.2) Wanindu Hasaranga, 8-126 (19.3) Ashen Bandara, 9-131 (19.6) Dushmantha Chameera, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin SinClair | 3 | 0 | 26 | 1 | 8.67 | |
| Fidel Edwards | 4 | 0 | 29 | 1 | 7.25 | |
| Jason Holder | 4 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 4.75 | |
| Obed McCoy | 4 | 0 | 25 | 2 | 6.25 | |
| Dwayne Bravo | 4 | 0 | 26 | 1 | 6.50 | |
| Fabian Allen | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4.00 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lendl Simmons | lbw b Wanindu Hasaranga | 26 | 15 | 3 | 2 | 173.33 |
| Evin Lewis | c Danushka Gunathilaka b Akila Dananjaya | 28 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 280.00 |
| Chris Gayle | lbw b Akila Dananjaya | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Nicholas Pooran | c Niroshan Dickwella b Akila Dananjaya | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Kieron Pollard | lbw b Wanindu Hasaranga | 38 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 345.45 |
| Jason Holder | not out | 29 | 24 | 1 | 2 | 120.83 |
| Fabian Allen | lbw b Wanindu Hasaranga | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dwayne Bravo | not out | 4 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 23.53 |
| Extras | 9 (b 0 , lb 4 , nb 1, w 4, pen 0) |
| Total | 134/6 (13.1 Overs, RR: 10.18) |
| Did not bat | Kevin SinClair, Obed McCoy, Fidel Edwards, |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-52 (3.2) Evin Lewis, 2-52 (3.3) Chris Gayle, 3-52 (3.4) Nicholas Pooran, 4-62 (4.6) Lendl Simmons, 5-101 (6.4) Kieron Pollard, 6-101 (6.5) Fabian Allen, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angelo Mathews | 1 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 19.00 | |
| Akila Dananjaya | 4 | 0 | 62 | 3 | 15.50 | |
| Dushmantha Chameera | 3 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 9.67 | |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | 4 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 3.00 | |
| Ashen Bandara | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2.00 | |
| Nuwan Pradeep | 0.1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 60.00 | |
