Sri Lanka vs West Indies 2nd T20 at RPS Colombo: 5 Talking Points of the Match

The Caribbean team came into this match looking for their first win of the tour after performing poorly in the Tests, the One Dayers and also in the first T20. They definitely wanted to open their account and they did just that when they defeated Sri Lanka at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. They performed brilliantly as a team in this match, by posting a decent total first and then bowling well in the second half to win the match and squared the T20 series 1-1.

Batting first, West Indies were off to a good start and at one stage, it looked like they would post a huge score on board, but Sri Lanka made inroads and West Indies had to settle for 162. In reply, the island nation were going well till the time Tillakaratne Dilshan was playing. But once he got out, they kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were finally bundled out for 139.

Here are the 5 important talking points for this match:

1. Flying Start for West Indian openers:

West Indies were off to a flying start as there openers Johnson Charles and Andre Fletcher piled up runs at a quick rate upfront. They added 62 runs for the first wicket in just 38 balls in which Fletcher contributed 23 runs before getting out to M Siriwardana. His partner also fell soon to the same bowler after scoring 34 runs in just 25 deliveries.

2. Dinesh Ramdin’s quickfire 30:

Ramdin added some crucial runs in the death overs at a time when the runs had dried up for the West Indies. He provided them the impetus needed to reach a respectable total. He scored an unbeaten 34 runs in 22 balls in which he hit 1 four and 2 sixes.

3. Dilshan’s 50:

The veteran player Tillakaratne Dilshan continued his good form and scored yet another 50 in T20s, his 11th. It was not the usual Dilshan innings and he was quite circumspect at the beginning but soon got going and completed his 50 in just 36 balls and while doing so added 70 runs with Shehan Jayasuriya for the 2nd Wicket. Just when he was looking dangerous, he was caught by Jason Holder who took a blinder and Dilshan perished after making 52 from 38 balls.

4. Dwayne Bravo’s all-round performance:

The Calypso Star Dwayne Bravo played an important role in his team’s first win on the tour. While batting, he played well and kept the scoreboard ticking. He scored 31 runs before getting out to Lasith Malinga. But it was his bowling which helped West Indies win the game. He came to bowl quite late and straight away started using his slow ball variations to good effect. He kept taking wickets without giving many runs and his final tally read as 4-0-28-4.

5. West Indian bowlers giving nothing away:

Learning from the other day, the West Indies bowlers bowled some good lines and lengths in this match and gave no freebies to the Sri Lankan batsmen. They used the slowness of the pitch to their advantage as they bowled some good slower balls time and again. The off-spinner Sunil Narine has always been miserly but today he was well supported by the likes of Ravi Rampaul and Kieron Pollard who along with Narine gave runs for less than 6 an over which is quite an achievement in a T20 game.