West Indies women won the four-match ODI series when they defeated the Sri Lanka women’s team by 31 runs in a low-scoring 4th ODI played at R. Premadasa Stadium on Wednesday.
The four-match series ended in favour of the Caribbean women by 3 games to 1 with this win. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first on a cloudy but a humid day in Colombo. Right arm seamer Sripali Weerakkody struck the first blow when she removed Kycia Knight for 8 in the 3rd over of the innings. Few overs later, set pair of Hayley Matthews and Stafanie Taylor was also sent back to the pavilion courtesy tight bowling by Sripali Weerakkody and Eshani Lokusuriyage.
Wickets continued to fall from one end while the two drop batswomen, Brittany Cooper played the anchor role for the visitors as she made a fabulous knock of 46 in 65 deliveries with 4 fours and 2 sixes as the Windies were bowled out for 156 in the 48th over. Sripali Weerakkody and Inoka Ranaweera took 3 wickets apiece for the hosts. Ranaweera’s slow left-arm spin was very hard to get away for the visitors as she conceded only 17 runs in her 10-over spell. Other than Cooper and Matthews, none of the other batswomen made significant contributions.
Chasing a par score of 157 runs to win, Sri Lanka lost their skipper Chamari Atapattu as early as the 4th over when Stafanie Taylor clean bowled her for just 2. The players found difficult to handle the bowling of West Indies women as wickets fell at regular intervals. Young Nipuni Hansika made 21 from 40 balls while former skipper Shashikala Siriwardene scored only 16 runs.
Vice-Captain Eshani Lokusuriyage tried her best in the final few overs to get her team over the winning line with a valiant effort of 30 in 50 deliveries but her efforts were made futile by the off-spin duo of Anisa Mohammed and Hayley Matthews who wrapped up the tail before the end of the 46th over. The Lankans fell short of 31 runs as the Windies women won the final ODI and clinched the series. With this win, the West Indies consolidated their position to the 3rd place while Sri Lanka’s solitary win in the 2nd ODI moved them to the 6th place from 7th place.
At the presentation ceremony, Sri Lanka Cricket gave a special award to Shashikala Siriwardene for being the first Sri Lankan women’s cricketer to take 100 wickets and 1000 runs.
The 3-match T20 series between these two teams starts on 23rd May at R. Premadasa Stadium.
Chief Scores:
West Indies women – 156 all out in 47.3 overs: Brittany Cooper 46, Hayley Matthews 24, Sripali Weerakkody 3/37, Inoka Ranaweera 3/17.
Sri Lanka women – 125 all out in 45.2 overs: Eshani Kaushalya 30, Nipuni Hansika 21, Tremayne Smartt 2/28, Hayley Matthews 3/7, Anisa Mohammed 2/23.
