March 4, 2020, 1:11 p.m.
Oshane Thomas returned to the international stage with a superb match-winning performance as West Indies dominated Sri Lanka in the first T20I on Wednesday night (Sri Lanka Time). The strongly-built six-footer bowled with frightening pace and extracted bounce and movement off the surface as he ripped the heart out of the Sri Lanka batting. He ended with career-best figures as West Indies recorded their first win of the tour by 25 runs at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.
MATCH SCORES: West Indies 196-4 off 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 67 not out, Andre Russell 35, Kieron Pollard 34, Brandon King 33) Sri Lanka 171 off 19.1 overs (Oshane Thomas 5-28, Rovman Powell 2-31)
Thomas, who turned 23 recently, was named Man-of-the-Match and recorded the third best bowling figures for West Indies in this format – behind Keemo Paul’s 5-15 against Bangladesh in 2018 and Daren Sammy’s 5-26 against Zimbabwe a decade ago. The result marked a special moment for captain Kieron Pollard who played his 500th T20 match and reached 10,000 runs. He also held a superb diving catch coming on off the long-on boundary.
WHAT’S NEXT: The two teams will remain in Kandy for the second and final match Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Friday. First ball is 7pm (9:30am Eastern Caribbean Time/8:30am Jamaica Time)
-CWI