Sri Lanka beat West Indies in the final Test to level the three-match series (1-1) in the historic day/night Test at the Kensington Oval, Barbados inside on the penultimate day of the match last week.
West Indies had won the first Test by 226 runs at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad, followed by a drawn Second Test at the Darren Sammy Cricket Stadium in St. Lucia.
The Windies put up a poor showing as they were bowled out for 93 in their second innings after scoring 294 in their first innings. Sri Lanka scored 154 in their first innings, giving the regional side a 50 run lead.
But there were signs of a Windies victory when Sri Lanka was batting at 85 for five when they resumed the fourth day chasing l44 to win, but Kusal Perera came to the crease after an injury scare at the fall of the sixth wicket and shared an unbeaten 63-run partnership with Dilruwan Perera for the seventh wicket to take Sri Lanka to victory.
Sri Lanka was playing without suspended captain Dinesh Chandimal, who lost his appeal over ball-tampering charge during the drawn second Test in St Lucia.
Captain Jason Holder commenting on the drawn game said there were two commendable performances during the Test series-bowler Shannon Gabriel and wicket/keeper batsman Shane Dowrich, who was named Man-of-the-Series. Gabriel took 20 wickets at an average of 14.95, while Dowrich scored 288 runs at 57.60, including one century and two half centuries. He also claimed 13 wickets behind the stumps.
This was West Indies’ third ever day/night Test match but the first to be staged in the Caribbean.
However, all three ended in losses for the West Indies team.
