Sri Lanka beat West Indies by 23 runs

Sports Desk: Sri Lanka beat West Indies by 23 at Chester-le-Street in Durham on Monday in ICC World Cup 2019.

After a brilliant start by Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera, Sri Lanka started off with a bang. Thanks to the maiden century by the 21-year old Avishka Fernando and supporting knocks by Kusal Mendis Lahiru Thirimanne, Sri Lanka reached a total of 338/6 after 50 overs. Jason Holder took two wickets, while Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas, and Fabian Allen took one wicket each.

After starting off slow and losing wickets in a hurry, West Indies were stabilised by Nicholas Pooran’s knock coming at number five. His maiden century of 118 from just 103 balls kept the Caribbeans in the fight right till the death overs. Fabian Allen scored a half-century too, which brought them close to a World Cup record run chase of 339.

Sri Lanka bowled well towards the end dismissing both the men in form, and restricted West Indies to 315/9 after 50 overs. Lasith Malinga bagged 3 wickets while Kasun Rajitha, Jeffrey Vandersay and Angelo Matthews got one wicket each.

Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/July 2, 2019/Nasim