1:28 PM GMT Toss West Indies opt to bowl v Sri Lanka West Indies won the toss and opted to bowl in the second – and final – T20I in Pallekele, despite having won comfortably batting first on Wednesday. The decision may have been influenced by the threat of rain later in the evening –
Sri Lanka
1:41 PM GMT Big Picture Such is the power in West Indies’ batting, that on Wednesday, Dwayne Bravo could have come in as low as No. 9. He didn’t, because he was unrequired. Without Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell and Bravo facing a single ball, West Indies still muscled their way to an imposing 196. Sri
1:35 PM GMT West Indies won the toss and chose to bat first in the first T20, in Pallekele. Brandon King made his first international appearance on the tour, partnering Llendl Simmons at the top of the order, which meant that despite Shai Hope’s outstanding form in the ODIs, there was no room for him
4:23 PM GMT Andrew Fidel Fernando Sri Lanka have lost each of their five most-recent T20Is, but the team’s improved fitness standards, and its batting confidence – both of which were on display in the ODI whitewash of West Indies – should have a knock-on effect. This is what captain Lasith Malinga hopes anyway, as
3:37 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Sri Lanka’s 3-0 sweep in the ODIs against West Indies has come with some collateral damage. Fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep and allrounder Dhananjaya de Silva will miss the two-match T20I series which begins March 4, after both picked up injuries in the third ODI on Sunday. Asitha Fernando, the right-arm
3:04 AM GMT Sri Lanka 92 for 1 (Perera 39*, Akter 1-18) beat Bangladesh 91 for 8 (Sultana 39, Siriwardene 4-16) by 9 wickets Shashikala Siriwardene held her own retirement party on her final day in international cricket taking a tournament-best 4 for 16 to help Sri Lanka to a consolation nine-wicket win over Bangladesh
9:16 AM GMT Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat in the third ODI, most likely because the Pallekele surface often has something for the seamers under lights. They also won their last match by 161 runs, batting first. The hosts were unchanged for the dead rubber, with Dasun Shanaka and Niroshan Dickwella
2:32 PM GMT Big Picture For both these teams, ODIs are perhaps their weakest format. Neither gave themselves a great chance of making the semi-finals in last year’s World Cup, and both have poor bilateral form, winning only two of their 10 previous series. As Sri Lanka move to the dead rubber at Pallekele after
Thisara Perera smashes the ball down the ground © AFP Thisara Perera has made a return to Sri Lanka’s T20I squad after missing the series in India, while fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep and spin-bowling allrounder Shehan Jayasuriya also earn recalls. There was no room, however, for batsmen such as Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Oshada Fernando, who
8:56 AM GMT Toss West Indies chose to bowl v Sri Lanka West Indies won the toss and chose to bowl first in the second ODI, in Hambantota, perhaps expecting their quicks to get something out of a surface that has at times been one of the fastest in the country. Only one change was
12:29 PM GMT Andrew Fidel Fernando Sri Lanka have completed 38 ODIs since the start of 2018. In that time, how many individual centuries do you think Sri Lanka batsmen have racked up? The answer is six. Just half a dozen hundreds in a period of more than two years, which included a World Cup.
10:52 AM GMT Australia 5 for 123 (Haynes 60, Lanning 41*, Prabodhani 2-17, Siriwardene 2-20) beat Sri Lanka 6 for 122 (Atapattu 50, Sanjeewani 25, Carey 2-18, Strano 2-23) by five wickets Australia are not playing well at all. Australia are still in the T20 World Cup. These two truths were undeniable at the end