COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Sri Lanka eased to a 26-run victory in the third one-dayer against West Indies to wrap up the series 2-0 yesterday.
Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara were rested by Sri Lanka but the absence of the key bowlers made little difference to the hosts as the easily defended a total of 277-9 by bowling out the visitors for 251 in 49 overs. West Indies got off to a bad start, losing openers Chris Gayle and Adrian Barath for ducks before recovering through a 125-run stand between Darren Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan. Bravo smashed nine fours and a six as he patiently scored 79 runs of 91 balls, while Sarwan notched up 51 off 66 balls.
Once the partnership was broken, West Indies struggled to maintain the required run rate despite contributions of 32 from Dwayne Bravo and 49 from Carlton Baugh.
Ajantha Mendis eventually ended the innings up with a spell of three wickets off 10 balls during the batting power play. He finished with figures of four for 46. Man of the Match Kumar Sangakkara top scored for Sri Lanka with a well-paced 75 off 105 balls after West Indies invited them to bat first. Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene (44) added 95 for the third wicket after openers Upul Tharanga (39) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (30) had given the innings the required momentum with a partnership of 54 off 50 balls. Angelo Mathews struck a belligerent 36 not out off 22 balls coming late in the order to push the Lankan total past the 275-run mark after they suffered a middle order collapse losing five wickets for 39 runs.
Sri Lanka won the second one-day international by eight wickets and the first game was washed out.
Tharanga was named Man of the Series.
