1st CG Insurance One-Day International
Venue: Sir Viv Richards Stadium
Toss: Sri Lanka won toss and batted
Result: West Indies won by 8 wickets
Scoreboard: https://www.windiescricket.com/matches/207296/
Shai Hope wrote his name in the history books with an excellent century as he marked a superb return to the ODI stage. He made a polished 110 of 113 balls and guided the West Indies to a resounding victory in the opening match on Wednesday – which snapped their five-game losing streak against Sri Lanka.
In pursuit of Sri Lanka’s 233, West Indies got a commanding opening start of 143 in 28.2 overs by Hope and Evin Lewis. Lewis was the first to go for 65 off 90 balls, bowled by a brilliant Dushmantha Chameera yorker.
In the last four ODIs, Hope’s scores against Sri Lanka are 115, 51, 72 and 110. This was his 10th hundred and he joined an elite group of West Indian to reach this milestone joining: Chris Gayle (25), Brian Lara (19), Desmond Haynes (17), Sir Gordon Greenidge (11), Sir Viv Richards (11), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (11), Marlon Samuels (10). Hope holds the record for the most ODI runs by a West Indies wicket-keeper – 3,399 in 74 innings at an average of 53.10 runs per innings.
He was named CG Insurance Player of the match and said:
“I just had patience and trusted my ability. I made sure I negated the threat that they threw at us. Hasaranga was the main threat and I think we played him very well. He didn’t get any wickets. It feels great to hit a century. Being away from the game for so long when playing is all you know – it’s just great to be back.”
The partnership between Hope and Lewis was the highest opening stand for West Indies against Sri Lanka in the Caribbean – beating the 113 by Chris Gayle and Johnson Charles at Sabina Park in 2013 and the highest against Sri Lanka all-time – surpassing the previous best of 133 by legendary duo Sir Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes at Adelaide Oval in 1985.
Darren Bravo joined Hope and the duo kept up the momentum adding 73 for the second wicket, before Hope was also bowled by a clever Chameera delivery with the score at 215-2 and victory in sight. This left Bravo on (37 not out) and Jason Mohammed (13 not out) to see the game home with three overs to spare.
Batting first Sri Lanka slipped from 105 without loss to be bowled out in 49 overs. Danuskha Gunathilaka top scored with 55 and fellow opener and captain Dimuth Kuranaratne made 52. The slide started in the 19th over, when captain Kieron Pollard dismissed his opposite number Karunaratne brilliantly caught and bowled as he dived full stretch to his right, juggling and finally held the chance.
Bowling for West Indies, Mohammed with his part time off-spin took 2-12 and new ball bowler Jason Holder 2-39 were the chief wicket takers, while Ashen Bandara made a well-crafted 50 on debut.
Pollard said:
“They were 100 without loss and we were looking at a chase of 300. We thought we needed to up the intensity in the field. They lost a couple of wickets and it started the slide. For us in white-ball cricket Hope is the guy. He’s been given a role and he gives us the foundation and others can bat around him. In One-Day cricket he’s been fantastic. We still had a couple of fumbles and weren’t perfect. The guys are up for the fight.”
Highlights available here https://bit.ly/2LQTuxt to Caribbean viewers on West Indies YouTube channel from tomorrow at 4pm Eastern Caribbean Time/3pm Jamaica Time.
- Upcoming matches:
- Friday, March 12: 2nd CG Insurance One-Day International at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. First ball is 9:30am (8:30am Jamaica Time)
- Sunday, March 14: 3rd CG Insurance One-Day International at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. First ball is 9:30am (8:30am Jamaica Time)
-CWI
