By Arjun 
West Indies clinched a gritty seven-wicket win with two overs to spare at Sabina Park in Kingston on Thursday, taking a 1-0 lead in the T20I series against Sri Lanka. The home side, chasing just138, had a few nerves but eventually reached their target in the last over of play with skipper Shai Hope scoring his first half-century.
With the ODI series having been hampered by rain, home fans finally had cause for jubilation as Hope played brilliantly to anchor the innings. The West Indies captain was not out on 65 off the354 balls, dealing with different phases of the chase in a composure and wisdom.
The duo of Hope and Brandon King got off to a flier, stitching together 67 runs for the first wicket in merely 38 balls. Sri Lanka fought back through their bowlers to change the tempo of the contest when King had made 37. The spinners tried to stem the flow but Wanindu Hasaranga was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2 for 32, while YNA pacer Eshan Malinga looked good on debut conceding only 26 runs and picking up a wicket.
Hope kept Sri Lanka’s attempts to drag the game deep in check, sharing key partnerships with Shimron Hetmyer, Roston Chase and Rovman Powell. Powell closed out the chase in style, finishing the chase off with a six over deep midwicket off Dilshan Madushanka with only three wickets down and as the equation narrowed to 19 by the last and final over.
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Coming to the match, Sri Lanka were off to a slow start after being asked to bat first. Kusal Mendis had given his side good start by scoring a brisk 36 off 23 balls and later Kamindu Mendis resisted with the bat before getting dismissed for a fighting out 51 from 39 deliveries. The visitors had little support from the rest of the batting line-up, though, and they only managed 147 for 9 in their allotted overs.
The Jason Holder-led bowling attack for West Indies was among the best performances of the fielding team, as they restricted Team India to just 91 runs for the loss of a wicket at the end 15 overs with match-winning bowling stat of 3 for 18 in-game. His three breakthroughs came just when Sri Lanka were threatening for more, as he forged two in two to apply pressure and leave Sri Lanka short of a larger total. Alzarri Joseph was also instrumental at 3 for 29.
Holder was awarded Player of the Match for his pivotal contribution with ball and West Indies took a step closer to their series victory with a comfortable win in the first test.