COOLIDGE – West Indies will have plenty of soul-searching to do and there are a number of hard questions that the selectors, the head coach and the captain will have to ask of themselves.
For now, Windies can celebrate that they defied the clear and present threat posed by Sri Lanka’s spinners to clinch their Twenty20 International (T20I) series 2-1, achieving an objective that was set before a ball was bowled between the two teams.
Chasing 132 for victory in the final and deciding T20I of the three-match series, the Caribbean side clawed their way to a three-wicket win under the lights at the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) in Antigua – but it was not pretty.
“We want to win games and win series, but this is a start,” West Indies captain Kieron Pollard said. “From a batting point of view, the guys did not score the big runs, but it happened on both sides.
“We got a series win. I said that is what we wanted to do. We faltered in the second game, but we fought to the end, and this is why it is a team sport. It’s not tennis or golf that we are playing.”
He added: “We have to learn from this. Guys have to go back and look at various things such as how they want to combat the spin when the ball is going in both directions, but we have time (before the ICC World Twenty20 in October in India).
“This can be a learning experience even for the senior players such as myself, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Lendl Simmons, we can learn a lot still and we can pass it onto the youngsters and continue in that vein.”
Simmons made the top score of 26 and fellow opener Evin Lewis got 21 to give West Indies a useful start to the chase.
But spin once again proved the undoing of the Windies batting with unorthodox left-arm spinner Lakshan Sandakan and leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga sharing five wickets while conceding 42 runs in eight overs between them.
The home team spiralled down from 37 without loss in the fifth over to 105 for seven, needing 27 from the final 19 balls of the match.
The under-fire Jason Holder, however, held his nerve to end on 14 not out, but he wisely farmed the bowling and kept Fabian Allen out of strike in the crucial 18th over, the final for the destructive Hasaranga.
Many have questioned Holder’s leadership in recent weeks and his position of Test captain is reportedly hanging in the balance, but it was a critical decision and proved justifiable.
He eased the tension when he lashed Hasaranga for a monster six over long-on from a free-hit in the middle of the same over and Windies entered the penultimate over needing 20 from 12 balls.
Allen erased all doubts with three sixes off mystery spinner Akila Dhananjaya’s final over to end a memorable all-round game with 21 not out and usher the hosts over the finish line with six balls remaining to earn the Player-of-the-Match award.
Allen swung the first ball over square leg, clearing the Sticky Wicket Restaurant, and scrambled two from the next ball, which peeled off the outside edge and went close to the third man boundary.
He swung the third ball – a full toss – onto the roof of the restaurant before he and Holder scrambled a couple of singles off the next two deliveries.
The Caribbean side needed four to win and Allen ended the match in grand style with a six over wide long-on.
“A win is a win and we will take this series win,” Pollard said. “It proved difficult, but (Sri Lanka) have three world-class spinners in their line-up, and I think they came and bowled excellently.
“(Their spinners) bowled the right lines and right lengths, and they had us bamboozled, but the belief in our dressing room…I think is what carried us through.”
Pollard added: “I can only imagine some of the chatter that is transpiring about what is happening here, but I must give credit to the guys. Fabian backed himself and held his nerve towards the end, but more importantly, Jason – that over against Hasaranga that was the turning point for us.
“(Jason) used his experience and decided he was the one that was going to bat those six balls for the team and give Fabian the freedom to go and hit boundaries.”
Earlier, West Indies bowled with discipline and fielded with purpose, but Dinesh Chandimal gathered 54 from 46 balls and Ashen Bandara made 44 not out from 35 balls to carry Sri Lanka to 131 for four from their 20 overs, after they chose to bat.
Windies made early inroads into the Sri Lankan batting and the visitors were wobbling on 47 for four at the halfway stage of their innings.
But the hosts could make no further headway into the Sri Lanka batting, and Chandimal and Bandara shared 85 – unbroken – for the fifth wicket to earn their side a respectable target.
No West Indies bowler took more than one wicket, but Allen was the most economical, conceding only 13 runs from his allotted four overs, and taking an impressive return catch to dismiss opener Danushka Gunathilaka.
“I think the bowlers came in and put in the work, day in and day out (in this series),” Pollard said. “They continued to work on their variations, and they continued to work on their lines and lengths.
“Again, we were disciplined, and the guys were able to execute…so that is a good sign for us, but we would have let down ourselves with our batting throughout the series.”
The two teams will now prepare for a series of three One-day Internationals that will be played this coming Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground about nine kilometres south of the CCG.
Summarised scores:
SRI LANKA 131 for four off 20 overs (Dinesh Chandimal 54 not out, Ashen Bandara 44 not out, Angelo Mathews 11).
WEST INDIES 134 for seven off 19 overs (Lendl Simmons 26, Nicholas Pooran 23, Fabian Allen 21 not out, Evin Lewis 21, Jason Holder 14 not out, Chris Gayle 13; Lakshan Sadakan 3-29, Wanindu Hasaranga 2-13, Dushmantha Chameera 2-23).
(AR)
