Cricket Live Score

That’s it from us folks, at the end of a bizarre but compelling first match between these two teams. Madushka Balasuriya’s report should be in soon. We’ll be back with you for the second T20, in a little less than 48 hours’ time. Take it easy.

Pollard again: “Kudos to the bowling line up for restricting them to 132. We started off pretty well and faltered in the middle with the hat-trick coming there. But we backed ourselves. If hitting sixes is our strength, we want to capitalise on our strengths. The series is going to be their spinners against our batters. We’re not going to hide from that reality. It’s about time that we start winning cricket games. We’ve tried to give guys opportunities with an eye on the World Cup. But we need to win cricket games, so we have to balance it.”

Mathews: “At the start if was really good batting by Nissanka and Dickwella. We didn’t assess the conditions after the first few overs. 160 would have been a good score on this. I knew we needed wickets to win this game. Had that catch been taken it would have been an interesting match. But mistakes do happen.

I though Akila and Wanindu Hasaranga bowled brilliantly – they had the batsmen guessing. That’s a plus point.

Pollard as we know is very destructive. What I told Akila was to go for his wicket even if he gets hit for six sixes. If he miscued one we could have got him out. Unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

Abhinav : “Who knew an innings of 4 of 17 balls is just what a team would need in a T20 match while chasing ”

Pollard, who is player of the match: “I felt I could hit six sixes after the third one. I did it in the Super 50 as well. I just backed myself. Once I had five sixes I knew I had the bowler on the back foot. He was going around the wicket and it was difficult for him. I just told myself: go for it”

What an incredible chase – one in which West Indies flexed their batting power, and suggested that phenomena such as momentum don’t really apply to a team with such extraordinary gifts. When Akila Dananjaya took that hat-trick, you could sense that Sri Lanka had a chance of defending their poor total. But within the space of a few balls, Kieron Pollard had pounded them out of the game, taking the same bowler for six sixes.

Wanindu Hasaranga gave Sri Lanka another sniff, but a dropped catch off Holder (again off the bowling of Dananjaya) prevented the match from having a final twist.

Nuwan Pradeep comes into the attack for the first time.

Numan mahmud: “This wi team seriously needs a guy call Shai Hope who can rotate the strike”

Ashen Bandara to bowl his leggies.

Here’s Fidel to take you through