West Indies VS Srilanka T20 Series 2021
3nd Match Played at Coolidge on 6 March 2021
Brief Scorecard: Sri Lanka 131/4 in 20 Overs (Dinesh Chandimal 54* , Ashen Bandara 44* ,Fabian Allen 1/13 , Kevin Sinclair 1/19 , Jason Holder 1/27 , Obed McCoy 1/29)
West Indies: 134 /7 In 19 Overs (Lendl Simmons 26, Nicolas Puran 23, Elvin Lewis 21, Chris Gayle 13, Lakshan Sandakan 3/29, PWH de Silva 2/13, Dusmantha Sameera 2/23)
West Indies won by 3 Wickets
West Indies Won the 3 Matches T20 Series by 3 Wickets
Player Of The Match: Fabian Allen.
West Indies had to struggle all through chasing and overhauling Sri Lanka set moderate target of 132 for winning the third and final match of the T20 series . They managed scoring 134/7 in 19 overs.
Star studded West Indies huffed and puffed in edging out spirited Sri Lankans 2-1 in the three matches T20 series. Looking at the lineups of the two teams any knowledgeable cricket admirers thought it would be a Davis Golliath Contest. But In actual practice all three matches were very tight contests.
Electing to bat first Sri Lanka ran into immediate trouble losing 4 wickets for 46 by the 10th over. One has to explore West Indies Cricket history when two spinners Fabian Allen and Kevin Sinclair opened the attack in T20 International. On the sluggish wicket both bowled with accuracy and penetration offering no free bees. However, coming to bat together when Lankans were looking down the barrel at 46/4 Dinesh Chandimal and Ashen Bandara produced an excellent unbeaten 4th wicket partnership of 85. Chandimal remained not out scoring 54 in 43 deliveries a controlled innings under given circumstance. Rookie Bandara remained unbeaten scoring 44 from 35 deliveries . Sri Lanka scored 131/4 .
At innings break it appeared that West Indies would cruise across the target. Lewis and Simmons made flying start as usual racing to 37 by the 5th over when Hasaranga de Silva struck double blows removing both the openers in quick succession. Gayle again failed creating hale scoring only 13. From there on Sandakan and Chameera teased and tormented star studded West Indies middle order. Had there been another 20 runs in Sri Lankan total it could be different story. At one stage West Indies was looking trembling at 105/7. Fabian Allen ( 21* ) and Jason Holder (14*) did the rescuing add adding unbeaten 29 runs at the 8th Wicket. West Indies won by 3 wickets but only just with 1 over left.
West Indies could have a sigh of relief thinking that a mission successful. This squad got together after a while. Eventually Sheldon Cottrell, Shannon Gabriel, Sunil Narin, Hetmeyer, and Andre Russell may be added at some stage or other. But the batsmen have to play spin much better if they have to retain T20 Championship trophy in India in 2021.
Sri Lanka can feel proud of lot of positives from the series. They did admirably well in the predicted uneven contest.
BDST: 1638 HRS, MAR 08, 2021
SMS