Sri Lanka Women 198 for 4 (Samarawickrama 44*, Hasini 43, Gunaratne 40, Athapaththu 38, Alleyne 2-22, Fletcher 2-31) beat West Indies Women 195 (Matthews 38, Taylor 33, Kumari 3-30, Dilhari 3-41) by six wickets
Three-wicket hauls from Sugandika Kumari and Kavisha Dilhari set Sri Lanka up for their first women’s ODI win over West Indies since 2015, the hosts going 1-0 up in the three-match series in Hambantota on Saturday.
Sent in, West Indies made a strong start, getting to 75 for 1 courtesy a 68-run second-wicket stand between Hayley Matthews and Shemaine Campbelle. They lost steam after left-arm spinner Kumari broke that partnership in the 19th over, losing their last eight wickets for 120 runs. Matthews (38) apart, only Stafanie Taylor (33) got past 30, as the spinners, led by Kumari and Dilhari, chipped away.
Sri Lanka’s top five managed the chase perfectly, with four of them getting past 35. Captain Chamari Athapaththu (38) and Vishmi Gunaratne (40) got them off to a solid start, putting on 88 in 13.2 overs, before Sri Lanka stumbled briefly, losing three wickets for 13 runs, with two of them falling to the medium-pace of Aaliyah Alleyne.
This article was originally published by Espncricinfo.com. Read the original article here.