Bowlers, Dottin set up West Indies win

Saturday, 23 February 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

West Indies began their tour of Sri Lanka on a good note, beating the hosts by four wickets in the first ODI in Dambulla on Friday.

Sri Lanka chose to bat, but struggled through their innings. While the top four all managed to get starts, no one was able to carry on. The West Indies bowlers, medium-pacer Shakera Selman in particular, kept a lid on the scoring rate. Selman finished with a miserly 10-5-8-2. A lower-order collapse didn’t help matters and, at 127 for 8, it looked like Sri Lanka would fold for a small total.

However, a 34-run partnership between Sripali Weerakkody and Dilani Manodara, dragged the Sri Lankan total past 150.

The World Cup runners-up never looked in much trouble during their chase of 164, even though they lost a few wickets in a cluster at the end.

Natasha McLean and Juliana Nero put together a solid 41 for the first wicket, before McLean was dismissed for 17. Stafanie Taylor, in her first match as captain, fell cheaply to the medium pace of Chamani Seneviratna.

West Indies, however, were in a spot of bother as Nero fell for 30 with the score on 76.

The impetus for the West Indies chase came from a 73-run, fourth-wicket partnership between Deandra Dottin and Kyshona Knight. Dottin played a typically belligerent knock, as she hit two fours and four sixes, scoring 43 of 39 runs.

Kyshona played a more composed knock; her 36 coming off 54 balls. West Indies stuttered a little towards the end, losing Knight and Dottin in consecutive overs, but West Indies were able to successfully chase the target.

– Pic by Shantha Ratnayake