(Cricket news) Sri Lankan spinners ruled the pitch as the series against West Indies ended with a victory for the hosts. The Lankan bowlers did the job with a lot of overs to spare as West Indies had a decent score to chase and also had time with them but fell short again similar to the 1st test.

West Indies had the upper hand when they bowled out the Lankans for 204 in the first innings, the openers had a 100 run partnership as the rest of the team could manage 100 more before they were back in the dressing room. Veerasammy Permaul took his first wicket haul when he got the wicket of Suranga Lakmal but the batters could not take advantage of the average score when they got out for 253. Captain Kraigg Brathwaite top scored with 72 as the rest of the team did spend time on the crease but could not score runs on board.

Ramesh Mendis took 6 wickets as he was the most economical against the Caribbean visitors. Sri Lanka now had to score high and had to score more than what they achieved in the previous innings. They lost the first wicket as captain Dimuth Karunaratne was run out by opposition captain Brathwaite in the second over as the wickets kept falling until Dhananjaya de Silva and 

Lasith Embuldeniya put together 124 runs for the 9th wicket which was the highest for Sri Lanka. Dhananjaya scored 155 as the team declared at 345.

West Indies had a day to chase a target of 297 as it looked like they had a chance to draw the series. Brathwaite departed in the 8th over for 6 as Jermaine Blackwood and Nkrumah Bonner held their ground for some time. Blackwood departed in 31st over as the team once again was out of balance and further went deep as Bonner also after overs, Embuldeniya’s two crucial breakthroughs laid the path for victory as he and Mendis took five each to win the match.

The two Tests saw spinners taking control as they accounted for 67 wickets which is the most in a two match series. Out of the 8 innings in the series, five of them had a five wicket haul as the final innings itself had two of them. The Lankan batters also had at least one half centurion in every innings of both the matches as they overall had an highly all round performance. Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne was the highest run scorer of the series with 278 runs and Ramesh Mendis was the leading wicket taker with 18 wickets.

Sri Lanka: 204/10 and 345/9 declared

West Indies: 253/10 and 132/10

Sri Lanka won by 164 runs

Player of the series: Ramesh Mendis (18 wickets), Man of the match: Dhananjaya de Silva (2 and 155*)

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