Sri Lanka Vs West Indies 2020: 3rd ODI, Pallekele – Angelo Mathews Secures Thriller Victory
Mar 2, 2020 at 2:15 AM
The hosts Sri Lanka won the thriller third and final game of the ODI series against West Indies at Pallekele and completed the whitewash in this series. Meanwhile, West Indies will now have to wait for a longer period to win their first ODI in Sri Lanka since August 2005.
After winning the toss, Sri Lanka decided to bat first. While Sri Lanka scored 307 runs in 50 overs, West Indies were restricted to 301/9 (50 overs) as the hosts won by just six runs. For his impressive bowling performance, Angelo Mathews has won the Player of the Match award.
Highest ODI totals with no batsman crossing even 55:
311-9 SA v SL (Lahore 1997)
310-6 WI v Pak (Christchurch 2015)
307 SL v WI (Pallekele 2020)#SLvWI #SLvsWI— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) March 1, 2020
Caribbean openers Shai Hope and Sunil Ambris provided a solid start and built up the 111 runs partnership for that first wicket. After Ambris lost his wicket on run-a-ball 60 runs, Hope put another 60 runs partnership for the second wicket with Nicholas Pooran.
The wicketkeeper-batsman Hope scored 72 runs off 88 balls before getting caught out at short midwicket. Then, Pooran also set up the 47 runs partnership with the skipper Kieron Pollard for the third wicket. But once Pooran (50) lost his wicket just after completing his half-century, the most of the other Caribbean batsmen failed to stretch that innings in the death overs.
In the 46th over, Pollard was dismissed on 49 runs. At the late of that innings, Fabian Allen played a sensational knock of 37 runs off just 15 balls (2 fours and 3 sixes) but just fell short as he lost his wicket when the visitors needed nine runs in last five balls.
Due to the leg injury, Sri Lanka mostly missed out their right-arm pacer Nuwan Pradeep who bowled 4.3 overs in that match and didn’t get a wicket. However, Angelo Mathews (4/59) became the hero of the match for the hosts after picking up four important wickets, and those batsmen were Nicholas Pooran, skipper Kieron Pollard, Jason Holder and Fabian Allen.
Also, Isuru Udana (1/76)) and Wanindu Hasaranga (1/41) claimed one wicket each.
Sri Lankan innings: Four batsmen scored 40+ runs
A total of four Sri Lankan batsmen scored 40+ runs, including two half-centuries. The opener and captain Dimuth Karunaratne and the wicketkeeper-batsman Kusal Perera both scored 44 runs each in the first innings. On the other hand, Kusal Mendis scored 55 runs, and Dhananjaya de Silva played the knock of 51 runs.
During that first innings, Sri Lanka had three 50+ partnerships, including the 60 runs opening partnership between Avishka Fernando and the skipper Dimuth Karunaratne. The other two 50+ partnerships were the 89 runs partnership for the third wicket between Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis and the sixth-wicket partnership of 64 runs between Thisara Perera and Dhananjaya de Silva.
Among the West Indies bowlers, Alzarri Joseph (4/65) got four wickets, and Jason Holder (2/68) picked up two wickets.
Earlier, in this ODI series, Sri Lanka won the thrilling first game by one wicket and the second match by 161 runs. The Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga won the Player of the Series award for scoring the crucial 75 runs in three innings (average 37.50) and taking four wickets (joint-second most wicket-taker for Sri Lanka in this series).