http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760
Sri Lanka overcame West Indies by 26 runs in the last match of the three-match One Day International (ODI) series played at Colombo. The hosts won the series 2-0 after the first match ended without a result due to heavy rain.
The toss was won by Darren Sammy and he elected to field first. Although the wicket didn’t have too much assistance for the bowers, Sammy decided to field as he wanted to test his batsmen while chasing the total.
Sri Lanka reached 277 after they were put into bat and the visitors were bowled-out for 251 in 49 overs.
The start to the Sri Lankan innings was a good one as Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga gave a 50-run opening stand to the team.
Dilshan was dismissed after scoring 30 runs off 28 balls. The centurion from the last match, Tharanga also failed to capitalize on the start he got to his innings and was dismissed for 39 off 52 balls.
The most experienced players from Sri Lanka, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara paired at the crease and amassed a solid partnership of 95 runs for the third wicket.
Jayawardene missed out on a half-century and was dismissed after scoring 44 runs off just 51 balls. His wicket saw a collapse for the team and the lower-middle order failed to stay at the crease for longer periods.
Sangakkara was also dismissed after a brilliant innings of 75 from 105 balls and the team was under a threat of being bowled-out within 240.
However, a quick-fire 36 off 22 balls from Angelo Matthews rescued the team from a disaster and the hosts managed to reach 277 runs in their complete overs.
The tall left-arm spinner Sulieman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Benn-c47745 was exceptional for his team. He took 4 wickets in the match for just 38 runs in his 10 overs.
The Windies didn’t get an ideal start as they lost both their openers, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adrian-Barath-c42094 and Chris Gayle, without a single run on the board. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Darren Bravo rescued their team with a century stand and gave hopes to their fans.
The pair amassed a 125-run partnership for the third wicket before Sarwan was dismissed after getting a tremendous 51 runs off 66 balls. Darren Bravo scored 79 runs off 91 balls before getting out.
The lower middle order wasn’t able to capitalize on the start and wickets kept on falling for the visitors at regular intervals. Dwayne Bravo scored 32 runs before getting out in the 40th over and things looked grim for the Windies.
However, there was some fight given by the wicket-keeper batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Carlton-Baugh-c49264, who scored 49 runs off 54 balls before getting out in the 49th over.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajantha-c42419 Mendis was the pick of the bowlers for the Sri Lanka as he took 4 wickets in the match and got good support from Thisara Perera, who took 3 wickets for his team.
The Sri Lankan captain Sangakkara was named as the player-of-the-match whereas; Tharanga was awarded as the player-of-the-series.
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