Sri Lanka aims for Series win today
After a convincing victory in the first ODI, Sri Lanka will take on West Indies in the second ODI at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium today commencing at 2.30pm.
Sri Lanka team led by Charith Asalanka will aim to maintain their momentum and seal the series while Caribbeans will be eager to bounce back, level the series and force a decider but confident home team is expected to make plans to defeat opponent to win the series with one game to spare.
West Indies top order was not successful in their last game but their middle-order did well led by Sherfane Rutherford and supported by Keacy Carty and Roston Chase to get good total but rain dashed their hopes.
Unfortunately, rain disrupted their momentum, leaving them with a DLS-adjusted score to defend and Sri Lanka got a revised target of 232 in 37 overs .The wet ball conditions added to their challenges, but they still picked up three early wickets to build up some pressure. However superb fourth-wicket partnership between Nishan Madushka and Charith Asalanka took the game away, helping Sri Lanka cruise to victory with 31 balls to spare to get early 1-0 series lead.
This second match also most probably going to be interrupted by rain and both teams are ready to face this situation at Pallekele.
Sri Lanka skipper Charith Asalanka said the first game convincing victory gave good momentum to go forward in this series and they wanted to make winning mentality once again. Our players played really well at the first game and our plan was to attack positively with spinning conditions and that plan was well executed in t the first game. Both myself and debutant Nishan Madushka played with a plan to build up innings. Madushka played really well in his debut game and his performance created a problem for me as well as the head coach .But we always expected this and when the bench is strong we can make good team to play a match and according to the match we can use best team added skipper Asalanka.
Sri Lanka most probably not going to make big changes after winning first game while they have plan to give more rest to Pathum Nissanka to pave the way for Nishan Madushka as an opener once again .The only change can be adding a paceman fora spinner with the wet conditions of the ground .The left arm paceman Dilshan Madushanka and Mohammed Shiraz who played only one game earlier are fighting to share the new ball with Asitha Fernando. West Indies bowlers had to face difficulties during the wet conditions at the first game and that advantage got by Sri Lanka batters and both teams are expected to face this situation.
Meanwhile West Indies skipper Shai Hope said we can’t control the weather .It is challenging conditions.We wanted to put up a better show on this second game to level the series .At the first game we showed good intent in the latter stages of the innings Sherfane Rutherford played a wonderful knock and we have to take a leaf out of his book. However both teams have not been finalized yesterday and they hope to name the team today after considering weather conditions.
The ground staff of Pallekele did a great job to resume the first game after three and half hours break and their effort once again going to be more important in the second game today.
Can the West Indies regroup and take the series to a decider, or will Sri Lanka wrap it up with another win at home?