DAMBUL­LA, Sri Lan­ka The West In­dies lost their first bi­lat­er­al T20 se­ries to Sri Lan­ka af­ter go­ing down by nine wick­ets in the third and fi­nal match in Dambul­la to lose the se­ries 2-1 on Thurs­day.

Sri Lan­ka’s re­mark­able 2024 con­tin­ued as Kusal Mendis and Kusal Per­era pow­ered their team to a his­toric T20I se­ries win. The duo’s com­mand­ing un­beat­en half-cen­turies helped Sri Lan­ka com­fort­ably chase the tar­get of 163 on a dry Dambul­la sur­face, seal­ing the match in 18 overs at 166 for one.

West In­dies, opt­ing to bat first, got off to a rocky start when Ma­heesh Theek­shana bowled Evin Lewis with just the fourth de­liv­ery of the in­nings for a duck.

Bran­don King had got­ten to 23 and showed some ear­ly in­tent along­side Shai Hope, but the spin threat from Sri Lan­ka was un­re­lent­ing. Theek­shana struck again in the sixth over, de­ceiv­ing King with a car­rom ball that crashed in­to the mid­dle stump.

The West In­di­an in­nings fal­tered fur­ther as Ros­ton Chase gift­ed a soft re­turn catch to Ka­min­du Mendis for eight, while Hope was sent pack­ing af­ter a sharp low catch by Pathum Nis­san­ka at first slip for 18.

The vis­i­tors would find them­selves in fur­ther trou­ble in the 12th over when Charith Asalan­ka re­moved Sher­fane Ruther­ford for six, at 62 for five.

West In­dies found some fight through cap­tain Rov­man Pow­ell and Gu­dakesh Motie, who ham­mered 25 runs off a Wellalage over, in­clud­ing three six­es and a four. How­ev­er, Wanin­du Hasaranga quick­ly dis­missed Motie, stumped for 32 off just 15 balls.

Late con­tri­bu­tions from Pow­ell (37) and Ro­mario Shep­herd (18) took the West In­dies to­tal to a de­fend­able 162-8, thanks to 39 runs in the fi­nal three overs.

How­ev­er, Sri Lan­ka’s re­sponse was ruth­less as open­ers Pathum Nis­san­ka and Kusal Mendis smashed 50 runs in just 4.1 overs.

Alzarri Joseph leaked 15 runs in the sec­ond over, and de­spite Motie claim­ing Nis­san­ka’s wick­et for 39, the re­lent­less at­tack con­tin­ued.

Kusal Per­era joined Mendis in the sixth over, and the pair put on an un­beat­en se­ries-win­ning part­ner­ship of 106, keep­ing the hosts firm­ly on track.

The on­ly sem­blance of con­trol the West In­dies man­aged was a tight three-over spell from Ros­ton Chase and Ro­mario Shep­herd, where they con­ced­ed just 14 runs. But the Sri Lankan pair re­mained com­posed, with Mendis reach­ing his half-cen­tu­ry in 37 balls and Per­era fol­low­ing suit off 34 de­liv­er­ies.

Mendis hit five fours and three six­es in his un­beat­en knock of 68 from 50 balls.

Fit­ting­ly, Per­era, who scored 55 not out from 36 balls with sev­en fours, sealed the vic­to­ry in the 18th over with a bound­ary, com­plet­ing a dom­i­nant eight-wick­et win.

SUM­MARISE SCORES

WEST IN­DIES 162-8 in 20 overs (Rov­man Pow­ell 37, Gu­dakesh Motie 32, Bran­don King 23. Ma­heesh Theek­shana 2-19, Wanin­du Hasaranga 2-24) vs SRI LAN­KA 166-1 in 18 overs (Kusal Mendis 68 not out, Kusal Per­era 55 not out, Pathum Nis­san­ka 39. Gu­dakesh Motie 1-31). Sri Lan­ka won by nine wick­ets.

Se­ries Re­sult: Sri Lan­ka won the 3-match se­ries 2-1

Play­er-of-the-Match: Kusal Mendis

Play­er-of-the-Se­ries: Pathum Nis­san­ka

Um­pires: Prageeth Ram­buk­wella & Ruchi­ra Pal­liyagu­ruge

TV Um­pire: Raveen­dra Wimalasiri

Match Ref­er­ee: Ran­jan Madugalle

Re­serve Um­pire: Lyn­don Han­ni­bal

(CMC)