West Indies 149 for 3 (Hope 65*, King 37; Hasaranga 2-32) beat Sri Lanka 147 for 9 (Kamindu 51, Kusal 36; Holder 3-18) by 7 wickets
The West Indies earned a tense win over Sri Lanka in the first T20 International at Sabina Park on Thursday. Three wickets from Jason Holder first helped the Caribbean side restrict the visitors to a modest total before a quick start from their openers pushed them ahead of the chase, laying the foundation for the 7-wicket victory.
Needing 148 runs to win, Windies openers Brandon King and Shai Hope shook off a nervy start to smash 66 runs from the first six overs. King was given a reprieve when he was caught off a Dushmantha Chameera no-ball on four in the second, and he capitalized by swatting three maximums while stoking a pair of fours on his way to a 22-ball 37.
Wanindu Hasaranga handed Sri Lanka the breakthrough in the seventh, bowling the Jamaican with 67 runs on the board. This brought Shimron Hetmyer to the crease, and the left-hander got into his work quickly, fashioning a 9-ball cameo before he too fell to Hasaranga for 17.
Even at the fall of Hetmyer’s wicket, the West Indies were well in control of the chase, needing 53 from 66. While the Sri Lankan spinners operated, however, the boundaries dried up, which saw the third-wicket partnership between Hope and Roston Chase chewing up 46 deliveries to produce 33 runs.
When Chase fell for a 26-ball 16 in the 17th, his demise was met with cheers from Sabina Park, with the equation then standing at a run-a-ball 20. It came down to seven runs needed from the final six balls, and after Hope (65*) turned over the strike to another local—Rovman Powell—he satisfied the ‘We Want Six’ chants from the fans by smashing Madushanka out of the ground for a most anticipated maximum, handing his team the win at 149 for 3 with four balls to spare.
Windies earlier rallied to hold Sri Lanka under par following a quick start from openers Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka. The pair shared in a 43-run (26 balls) stand for the first wicket.
Their stay at the crease was brought to life when Kusal (36) smashed consecutive maximums off Matthew Forde in the fourth, which eventually went for 17 runs.
Hope summoned Holder into the attack, and the veteran responded with a double strike, bowling Nissanka (18) before trapping Lasith Croospulle for a first-ball duck, to leave Sri Lanka 43 for two at the end of the fifth.
The visitors would lose a third in the first phase as Pavan Rathnayake was dismissed by a well-judged Shimron Hetmyer catch on the boundary in the sixth as they finished the powerplay 56 for three.
Top scorer Kamindu Mendis (51) and Dasun Shanaka (22) put on 59 pedestrian runs in a 48-ball fifth-wicket stand as the West Indies limited Sri Lanka to 69 runs through the middle overs. Chase led the squeeze, conceding only 19 runs for the wicket of Dasun Shanaka from his quota.
Holder (3/18) then returned to help stifle the lower order as Sri Lanka stuttered to 147 for nine from their 20 overs.
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