West Indies 180 for five (King 63, Lewis 50, Pathirana 2-27) won Sri Lanka 179 for 7 (Asalanka 59, Kamindu 51, Shepherd 2-39) through 5 wickets
They had enough batting to continue the chase, and Sherfane Rutherford completed it with a four off the first ball of the general over.
King and Lewis exploit the power play
Lewis hit the main hurdles, bowling Chamindu Wickramasinghe for a six and a four at the end of the first over, but it was King who had the biggest impact on the day there were fielding restrictions in the games. King’s usual method used to be to run at the bowlers and blast them into the farmlands. Her hand-eye coordination was so good that she did it twice against seamer Asitha Fernando in the second over, before trying to take advantage of Maheesh Theekshana’s spin in the third over.
At the end of the powerplay, King had eight fours (some of them over, to be honest) and 39 runs off 20 balls. Lewis, who had almost exclusively knocked down Wickramasinghe’s hurdles, scored 31 off 16 balls. And West Indies scored 74 for the first six.
They kept swinging and, in the end, Lewis made 50 of 28 and King 63 of 33. The demand was relatively easy after his attack.
When Kusal Mendis was also bowled by a quicker delivery from Gudakesh Motie, dismissing Sri Lanka in the 58th over for three, it looked as if the West Indies were about to make the game visible.
Kamindu is also excellent at cricket.
But the closest, probably, is the future to confess that Kamindu seems to understand what he is doing in a cricket garden. Having recently become the fastest batsman since 1950 to 1000 Test runs, he produced 50 for 41 here in the shorter structure, second only to Asalanka in his team, who scored 59 for 35, Kamindu would also bowl two. overs for 14, changing hands when necessary. He took the wicket of the opposition’s leading scorer, King, along with his left-arm spin, and took figures of one for 14.
