PRETORIA, South Africa, CMC – Devon Smith and Dale Richards stroked fighting half centuries but Sri Lanka emerged comfortable five-wicket winners over West Indies with 15 balls to spare in their ICC Champions Trophy warm-up match yesterday.
Choosing to bat first, West Indies scored 201 all out off 45.1 overs and Sri Lankan replied with 202 for five off 47.3 overs at LC de Villiers Oval.
Smith (67) and Richards (59) were the only significant scorers in the West Indies’ innings as spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis equally shared six wickets to torment West Indies just three days before their opening Champions Trophy match against Pakistan.
West Indies recovered from an unsteady start when opener Richards and Smith added 80 runs in 14 overs for the second wicket after Andre Fletcher went cheaply in the third over.
Pacer Nuwan Kulasekara bowled Fletcher (8) with just nine runs on the board but Richards and Smith lifted the score to 89 before Richards fell to pacer Lasith Malinga, ending a near run-a-ball knock.
Richards thumped 10 fours and two sixes in scoring his 59 off 60 balls in 83 minutes.
The left-handed Smith stood firm while the Sri Lankans celebrated a flurry of wickets in a steady middle-order decline for the Caribbean side.
Without their top flight players absent because of a contracts dispute with the board, West Indies plunged to 158 for seven after losing five wickets for 37 runs.
Magic spinner Muralitharan cheaply dislodged Travis Dowlin (9), captain Floyd Reifer (2) and Kieran Powell (0) in a three-wicket burst, while Dave Bernard (6) and Chadwick Walton (0) also departed for single digit scores.
Darren Sammy (20) added 32 for the eighth wicket with No.3 batsman Smith, who was eighth out for a top-score 67 that included six boundaries.
Smith, the most experienced player at international level in the current West Indies set-up, faced 102 balls and batted 179 minutes.
Muralitharan finished with tidy figures of three for 17 off six overs, while his spin partner Mendis claimed three for 31 and Malinga picked up two for 45.
West Indies put up some resistance when the Sri Lankans chased and the 1996 World Cup champions were tested early before pulling off their victory.
Sammy bowled Tillakaratne Dilshan (2) with just three runs on the board in the second over and the St Lucian medium pacer also sent back the veteran Sanath Jayasuriya (21) at 39 for two in the 10th over.
Captain Kumar Sangakkara and ex-skipper Mahela Jayawardene then linked up for a 44-run third-wicket partnership that ended when pacer Tino Best had Sangakkara caught behind for 35 off 44 balls.
Jayawardene went on to score 67 off 93 balls with six boundaries, setting up the victory.
Thilina Kandamby carved out a steady 44 not out off 67 balls with four boundaries to formalise the victory, a result that dipped the West Indies warm-up record to one win against three losses.
After losing by three wickets to Cape Cobras last Saturday, West Indies rebounded Monday to defeat North West Dragons by 103 runs against club sides before losing to South Africa and now Sri Lanka in official ICC warm-up fixtures.
South Africa had beaten West Indies by 188 runs on Friday.
West Indies, tournament winners in England 2004 and runners-up two years later in India, are in Group A of the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy alongside Australia, India and Pakistan, who they open against on Wednesday.
Their other first-round fixtures are against Australia on Saturday, September 26 and India on Wednesday on September 30.
Group B is made up of South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and England.
