Caption: Debutant Dunith Wellalage took three wickets as Sri Lanka dismissed the West Indies for their sixth lowest T20I score. Photo: CMC
DAMBULLA, Sri Lanka– Debutant Dunith Wellalage led an impressive bowling display by Sri Lanka’s spinners in an absolutely dominant 73-run win over the West Indies in the second T20 international here Tuesday at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium.
With the West Indies chasing Sri Lanka’s challenging 162 for five from 20 overs, the 21-year-old left-arm spinner grabbed three of the nine wickets that fell to spin, as the home side bundled out the visitors for 89, their sixth lowest ever T20I score and lowest total against them.
The result left the three-match series tied at 1-1, with the decider set to be played on Thursday at the same venue.
Wellalage and the six other spinners once again exposed West Indies’ weakness against spin bowling on a slow track that offered turn and bounce, with only three of their batters getting into double digits.
Unlike the previous match where they posted 74 runs in the power play, West Indies’ openers Evin Lewis and Brandon King struggled to get the ball off the pitch.
Off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana’s first over only went for two runs, but both Lewis and King hit pacer Nuwan Thushara for boundaries in the second over of the innings.
It was the only over of Sri Lanka’s innings not bowled by a spinner.
Wellalage struck in his first over and third of the innings when he enticed a frustrated King to come down the track, only to be beaten by a short, turning delivery that gave wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis an easy stumping, to leave the Windies 12 for one.
Theekshana then got rid of Lewis in the next over, trapping him lbw for seven after he missed his intended sweep shot and three runs later Wellalage had Roston Chase caught at first slip for a duck as the visitors slipped to 17 for three.
With five runs added, Andre Fletcher, who played in place of Shai Hope, only managed four runs from 11 balls before his intended sweep shot skied in the air for Kamindu Mendis to take the catch running back from slip to give Wellalage his third wicket.
And when Sri Lanka skipper Charith Asalanka bowled the promoted Gudakesh Motie and Sherfane Rutherford in the space of three balls to restrict the West Indies to 39 for six in the 10th over, the outcome was effectively decided.
West Indies captain Rovman Powell hit a six and a four in his topscore of 20 runs from 17 balls and Alzarri Joseph, who made 16, also smashed a couple boundaries, but it was never going to be enough to get them remotely close to their target.
Wellalage was the pick of the bowlers with 3-9 from his four overs while, Asalanka (2-6), Theekshana (2-7) and Wanindu Hasaranga (2-32) supported well.
Earlier, after winning the toss and opting to bat first, Sri Lanka were given a solid start from their opening pair of Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis, who added 77 runs.
With spinner Gudakesh Motie extracting turn and bounce from the pitch, the duo targeted the pacers, with Nissanka clobbering Shamar Joseph for five boundaries in the fourth over of the innings that yielded 25 runs.
Joseph’s three overs went for 35 runs, Alzarri Joseph’s four overs cost 33 runs, while Shamar Springer leaked 24 runs from his two overs.
Springer made the eventual breakthrough, though, when he had Mendis caught at long on for 26 and Shamar Joseph trapped Kusal Perera lbw for 24, as Sri Lanka battled to 111 for two in the 14th over.
Soon after, Player-of-the-Match Nissanka brought up his half century from 47 balls when he steered Alzarri Joseph to backward point for a single, but after adding four more runs he was undone by a quick yorker from the same bowler.
In all he faced 49 balls and struck nine fours and one six.
Despite not having an explosive finish to their innings, Sri Lanka still managed to gather 2o runs from the last two overs to get up to their eventual total. (CMC)
