Hasranga, with his Not out of 39 balls with 4 fours and a six, gave Sri Lanka a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
With a not out 42-run knock by lower-order batsman Wahindu Hasranga, Sri Lanka registered a thrilling one-wicket victory in the first ODI International cricket match here on Saturday, on the centurion effort of West Indies’ Shai Hope. Sri Lanka had a target of 290 runs but despite a good start from captain Dimuth Karunaratne (52) and Avishka Fernando (50), the team was in a time of crisis.
In such a situation, eighth batsman Hasranga gave Sri Lanka a 1-0 lead in the three-match series with his unbeaten innings played with the help of four fours and a six off 39 balls.
Earlier, West Indies had scored 289 for seven wickets on being invited to bat first. The highlight of his innings was Hope’s 115, his eighth century in ODIs. Apart from him, Roston Chase contributed 41 and Darren Bravo contributed 39 runs. For Sri Lanka, Isuru Udana took three wickets but for this, he spent 82 runs.
In addition to scoring a century, Shai Hope also took four catches as a wicketkeeper but his effort did not win the team. Alzari Joseph took three wickets for 42 runs. The second match will be played in Hambantota on Wednesday.
