Sri Lanka will face West Indies in the final T20 match of the series at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Wednesday, 10 November.
The visitors have struggled against the Lankan lion right from the start of the series. They have lost all the matches so far in this series across all the format of the international game. And on Wednesday, the Caribbeans will be taking on Sri Lanka for one last time in this tour of the Lankan island.
Sri Lanka posted a humongous total of 215 runs in the first T20 match of the two-match-series at The Pallekele Stadium on Monday. In reply, West Indies could reach 185 runs and they were all out, thereby losing the first T20 game by 30 runs.
West Indies have nothing to lose when they will be facing Sri Lanka in the last final T20 of the series. They will be playing for pride and nothing else. It was evident that Caribbeans felt the boost in their confidence after the arrival of Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and T20 skipper Darren Sammy. They looked more relaxed and pumped up on the field during the first T20 game at Pallekele.
None of the above mentioned players could make an impact on the game though but it will be wrong to say that they did not try. They tried hard and the pressure kept on mounting on them while chasing that huge total. Eventually, pressure prevailed and the visitors threw all their wickets away.
Sri Lanka got off to a flier in the first T20 at Pallekele. Tillekaratne Dilshan and Kusal Perera gave the hosts an ideal start. Perera and Dilshan added 91 runs in tandem in nine overs. That literally made the platform for the rest of the big hitters in the middle order to come and swing hard.
Aptly, Angelo Mathews remained unbeaten till the end of the Sri Lankan innings and he took the onus on himself to take his side past the 200-run mark. Mathews scored 37 runs from just 13 balls which included two fours and four sixes. He was ably assisted by Dinesh Chandimal who went on to score 40 from 19 balls.
West Indies will have to find a way to break this opening partnership between Dilshan and Perera, or else they will easily pile on further miseries on the visitors. The bowlers have bowled poor line and length right throughout the series and as a result they have paid for it as well. It cost them all the matches they have played in this tour against Sri Lanka so far.
Squads:
Sri Lanka: Lasith Malinga (C), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kusal Perera, Shehan Jayasuriya, Angelo Mathews, Milinda Siriwardana, Chamara Kapugedera, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Kithuruwan Vithanage, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Sachithra Senanayake, Jeffrey Vandersay, Binura Fernando, Thisara Perera
West Indies: Darren Sammy (C), Samuel Badree, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Jason Holder, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor.
Sri Lanka vs West Indies 2nd T20 schedule:
2nd T20:
Date: 11 November.
Venue: R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
Time: 7 pm IST (7 pm local time, 9:30 am West Indian time, 1:30 pm GMT).
TV Listings: India: Ten Cricket. Sri Lanka: Ten Cricket. UK: Sky Sports. USA: Willow TV.