Sports
Matthews’ century leads West Indies to six-wicket victory
Hayley Matthew’s tenth ODI century led West Indies to a six-wicket victory in the final match of the series against Sri Lanka and gave them their first points in the new Women’s Championship cycle.
Sri Lanka had already secured the series but couldn’t clinch a whitewash as Matthews dominated: she started the match by removing opposite number Chamari Athapaththu in the first over of the contest and then compiled an 118-ball hundred, which took West Indies most of the way in their chase.
“I felt like I was in a pretty good space batting-wise and probably just [in the] first game got pretty unlucky with how I got out and then in the second match gave my own hand away,” Matthews said. “So I certainly felt like I was in a space where I wasn’t exactly being too threatened at the crease and I knew I just had to lock in and try to take it a bit deeper.”
The home side was in early trouble in St George’s against a target of 218 with Qiana Joseph and Shemaine Campbelle falling to Malki Madara to leave West Indies 12 for 2. But after taking 12 balls to find her first boundary, Matthews did not look back as she took charge of the innings, adding 124 for the third wicket with Stefanie Taylor, who moved second on the all time run scorers list in ODIs.
Matthews’ fifty came from 48 balls before she slowed a little in the second half of her innings, but the asking rate was never a threat for West Indies. She did give a chance on 70 when Nilakshika Silva was unable to hold a return catch. The ball after reaching the century, though, Matthews picked out deep midwicket but a stand of 49 between Deandra Dottin and Chinelle Henry finished the job.
Following the early loss of Athapaththu, Sri Lanka’s innings was anchored by Harshitha Samarawickrema’s 70 off 112 balls. She added 78 for the third wicket with Vishmi Gunaratne, but the visitors struggled to lift the scoring rate in the latter stages as West Indies chipped away, with Karishma Ramharack removing Gunaratne and Samarawickrama in the space of four overs.
Brief scores:
West Indies Women 218 for 4 in 46 overs (Hayley Matthews 100, Stefanie Taylor 38, Chinelle Henry 32*; Malki Madara 2-33) beat Sri Lanka Women 217 for 7 in 50 overs (Hasini Perera 27, Harshitha Samarawickrama 70, Kavish Dilhari 45*, Hayley Matthews 2-33, Karishma Ramharack 2-39) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
“I’m going to put it very simple: it’s hurtful, it’s painful and it’s shameful,” Farveez Mahroof, the former Sri Lanka allrounder, said, pretty much summing up the mood among cricket fans in the island after their abject failure against New Zealand on Wednesday in Colombo. That it came after being bowled out for 95 by England and meant Sri Lanka’s T 20 World Cup 2026 was over just added to the sense of dejection.
“It’s not a pitch that you can play through the line, I get it. But the way some of the batters just gifted their wickets away, apart from Pathum Nissanka’s delivery [from Matt Henry], every other dismissal was a soft dismissal, giving the wickets away, just like the England game, where all ten were soft dismissals,” Maharoof said on ESPN Cricinfo TimeOut after the match. “Continuing the same trend into another game, a must-win game, shows Sri Lanka were not up to the mark with the bat.”
Nissanka has been Sri Lanka’s best batter in the tournament, and the main man in their win over Australia, when he slammed a 52-ball 100 not out. On Wednesday, Henry produced a peach to Nissanka first ball, and “whatever hopes that Sri Lanka had just vanished”.
At the T20 World Cup, which Sri Lanka came to after losing 3-0 to England in a series at home, they beat Oman and Ireland, teams ranked lower than them, and then Australia in the group stage, but since then, it has all been downhill. Zimbabwe, England and now New Zealand have beaten Sri Lanka, and the last two have come after poor batting performances.
“It’s becoming a bad habit to have. I have been doing this analysis for seven-eight years, I keep saying the same old thing: once in a while, a good game, and our hopes are high; all of a sudden, come crashing down to the earth,” Maharoof said, referring to the Australia game. “It’s not the first time. I just hope something down the line, this has to come to an end, some hard decisions have to be made.
“I think after the next game, before the next series starts, Sri Lanka’s selectors and the think tank should really think of the future, what are the capabilities of the players, who should stick and who should not stick, and move on. I expect probably in the next couple of weeks, some hard decisions are going to be made. If not, I will be very surprised.”
Sri Lanka end their campaign with a game against Pakistan, in Pallekele on February 28.
[Cricinfo]
Pulisha Thilakarathne top scored with 89 runs and held the top order batting together as Trinity scored first innings points and took major honours in the Ranil Abeynayake Memorial Trophy cricket encounter at BRC ground on Wednesday.
Trinity took a first innings lead of over 50 runs and declared their innings with two wickets in hand to find Thomians doing better in the second essay.
Jayden Amaraweera was in the forefront of the Thomian revival in the second innings as he scored his second half century of the match. Aaron Kodituwakku missed a second half century by five runs.
For Trinity, Mahendra Abeysinghe and Dinal Fernando were the others to make contributions with over 40 runs, while Aadham Hilmy made 32.
Scores:
S. Thomas’ 189 all out in 77.4 overs
(Aaron Kodituwakku 72, Jaden Amaraweera 50, Shanil Perera 37n.o.; Kanika Anthony 5/66, Dinal Fernando 3/34) and 182 for 5 in 53 overs (Jaden Amarawera 68, Aaron Kodituwakku 45;
Chaniru Senarathne 2/44)
Trinity 54 for 1 overnight 246 for 8 decl. in 58.2 overs (Pulisha Thilakarathne 89, Mahendra Abeysinghe 44, Dinal Fernando 45, Adam Hilmy 32; Abheeth Paranawidana 4/95, Gimhan Mendis 3/41) (RF)
Blue jerseys on the backs of a teeming crowd along the Walajah Road on Thursday evening will finally not be out of context. Fans in Chennai have embraced every team that has set foot in the city and played at the iconic venue, turning up in tens of thousands even for sweltering afternoon matches here. But India are finally in town, with everything riding on their fixture.
[Cricbuzz]
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