West Indies captain Shai Hope slammed an unbeaten 65 off 54 deliveries to guide his team to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the first T20 International (T20I) in Jamaica. Chasing a modest 148, the home side pulled off the victory in the last over, with four balls to spare.

The match, however, was set up beautifully by their bowlers, who restricted Sri Lanka to 147/9. Jason Holder (3/18) and Shamar Joseph (3/29) were the pick of the bowlers for Hope’s side, accounting for six of the seven wickets picked up by the bowlers.

WI openers start well

West Indies never looked in a spot of bother as their openers, Brandon King (37) and Hope, put on 67 for the first wicket off just 38 deliveries. However, Sri Lanka pulled things back by keeping things tight and did exceedingly well to take the match into the last over. However, they eventually fell 10-15 runs short in the end.

Needing six off the final over, Rovman Powell smashed the ball over the mid-wicket fence off the second ball to take his side home.

Any positives for Sri Lanka?

The positive for Sri Lanka was Kamindu Mendis’ (51) half-century and Kusal Mendis’ quickfire 36 off 23. Wanindu Hasaranga was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2/32.

Sri Lanka will hope to draw level when they take on West Indies in the second match of the series, which will be played on June 13 (Saturday) at the same venue. Sri Lanka went into the T20I series on the back of a 1-0 win in the One-Day International (ODI) series, where two of the three matches were washed out.

Brief scores:

Sri Lanka 147/9 in 20 overs (Kamindu Mendis 51, Kusal Mendis 36; Jason Holder 3/18) lost to West Indies 149/3 in 19.2 overs (Shai Hope 65*, Brandon King 37; Wanindu Hasaranga 2/32) by 7 wickets.

Player of the Match: Jason Holder

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