Fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell grabbed two wickets in a fiery opening burst and ended with the third-best figures of his ODI career, but West Indies did not sustain the momentum and lost the second match to Sri Lanka on Wednesday night. The visitors fell to a heavy defeat by 161 runs and surrendered the series 2-0 – with one match to play. They lost the first match by one wicket last Saturday the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.
MATCH SCORES: Sri Lanka 345-8 off 50 overs (Avishka Fernando 127, Kusal Mendis 119; Sheldon Cottrell 4-67, Alzarri Joseph 3-57) West Indies 184 all out off 39.1 overs (Shai Hope 51, Nicholas Pooran 31; Wanindu Hararanga 3-30)
The left-arm quick ended with 4-67 off his 10 overs but the visitors recovered from being 9-2 in the third over of the day to rattle up a record score on home turf at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium in the southern town of Hambantota.
Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne went for a single and Kusal Perera fell for a “duck” in his 100th ODI. Mendis got an early “life” and went on to score his second ODI hundred. Mendis and Fernando, who hit his career-best score in 123 balls, smashed 22 fours between them. They added 239 for the third wicket in 40 overs.
Cottrell continues to show improvement as a new ball bowler – his best figures in his career so far have all come in the last 12 months – 5-46 against England in Barbados last March and 4-56 against New Zealand in Manchester during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
“It was the start we were looking forward to, getting two wickets early. But I put the catch of Kusal Mendis down, otherwise they would have been three down. We didn’t stick to our plans long enough. Well bowled to them and well played to them. We weren’t there in all three departments today.”
WHAT’S NEXT: The two teams will now travel to central town of Kandy for the third and final ODI on Sunday, March 1 at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. First ball in the day/night match is 2:30pm (5am Eastern Caribbean Time/4am Jamaica Time) (CWI)
