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Sri Lanka 156 for 3 (Mendis 56, Nissanka 56, Chase 1-20) vs West Indies (23 overs a side)
That the game would take this turn could hardly have been predicted during the 17.2 overs of the innings that had come prior to the rain intervention. That had seen Sri Lanka stitch together a measured start, with openers Pathum Nissanka and Avishka Fernando putting on 81. Avishka had fallen just before the rain stoppage, which meant Kusal had faced just the one delivery at that point.
But the shortened time frame upon restart meant Sri Lanka had abruptly been thrown into a death-overs sprint, but in Kusal they had just the man for the occasion. In thrilling display – almost as a reward for the patient crowd – Sri Lanka struck 75 runs in 5.4 overs.
And it all began with the four balls left in Roston Chase’s second over, as Kusal proceeded to clatter each of them for boundaries – two precise pulls, one stunning straight drive, and finally a fortunate inside edge down to fine leg.
The shortened game had also had some knock-on effects on the West Indian bowling plans, as the new provisos meant three bowlers were given a quota of five overs each, while two others were handed four apiece.
Once Chase’s over was belatedly completed, and with Sri Lanka in raucous mood, West Indies were suddenly faced with the proposition of figuring out how Gudakesh Motie, Jayden Seales, and Alzarri Joseph, who had bowled four, four and three overs respectively, would split the remains. But with the economical Matthew Forde already having bowled five overs prior to the rain break, it meant only one more bowler could bowl five and they needed to find one more over from somewhere.
With Chase having been dispatched upon the resumption of play, it was left to Sherfane Rutherford to roll his arm over, and he was duly taken for 17 runs courtesy two fours and a six.
And even when Nissanka was dismissed going for a tight run – they were running for everything – it mattered little, as Charith Asalanka launched just his second ball faced for six over deep midwicket.
To compound matters for the visitors, their catching, which had been questionable prior to the rains continued in the same vein after it. Kusal was dropped once on the square leg boundary and again at long-on, as he finished the innings unbeaten.
Prior to the rain break the game went in much the same way, with Sri Lanka on top but in far less breakneck manner. This was largely down to West Indies dropping three chances – two of Nissanka and one of Avishka – inside the opening 10 overs.
Forde, who had been impeccable with his nagging lines and lengths around off, was the unlucky bowler on two of those occasions, the first of which was off just the third delivery of the game as Nissanka pushed at one away from the body only for Brandon King at first slip to spill a sharp chance low to his right.
King ended up repeating the trick a few overs later with an identical chance off Seales, with Nissanka once more the lucky recipient. Seales himself was at fault though in-between those two chances, when Avishka flicked one uppishly towards square leg off Forde, only for Seales to palm it over.
This meant Sri Lanka’s opening stand steadily climbed to 81 by the end of the 17th over, before the West Indies finally held on to a chance, when one stuck in the surface and resulted in Avishka chipping it back to Chase. New batter Kusal had faced just the solitary delivery before the rains intervened.