Athapaththu, Priyadharshani set up Sri Lanka's first T20I win over West Indies since 2015
Written by I Dig SportsSri Lanka 137 for 6 (Gunaratne 35, Samarawickrama 35, Fletcher 2-29) beat West Indies 134 for 8 (Matthews 30, Athapaththu 4-29, Priyadharshani 3-28) by four wickets
Athapaththu and Priyadharshani shared seven wickets, with the former finishing with 4 for 29, to restrict West Indies to 134 for 8. In reply, Sri Lanka romped home with four wickets and eight balls to spare to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.
Earlier, West Indies received an injury scare for Stafanie Taylor after being asked to bat. She injured her leg while returning to her crease in the third over and had to be stretchered off, but then returned after the fall of the first wicket in the seventh over - when Athapaththu bowled Qiana Joseph.
The Sri Lankan spinners, led by Priyadharshani, kept a lid on West Indies' scoring throughout, highlighted by Matthews' run-a-ball 30 being the top-score for them. Thanks to an enterprising 33-run partnership between Alleyne (26 off 22) and Fletcher (14 not out off 11) in just 23 balls, West Indies were able to score 35 runs off the last four overs to finish with a decent score.