Jamaica’s Oshane Thomas returned to the international stage with a superb match-winning performance as West Indies dominated Sri Lanka in the first T20I.
Thomas bowled with frightening pace and extracted bounce and movement off the surface to end with career-best figures as the WIndies recorded their first win of the tour by 25 runs at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.
The 23 year-old, who was named Man-of-the-Match, recorded the third best bowling figures for West Indies in this format – behind Keemo Paul’s 5-15 against Bangladesh in 2018 and Daren Sammy’s 5-26 against Zimbabwe a decade ago.
#SLvWI Maroon Magic!!!🤯 Oshane Thomas becomes the 1st West Indian to take 3 wickets in one over in a T20I!! #MenInMaroon
Live Scorecard⬇️https://t.co/T7zyBBjwh4 pic.twitter.com/YHzx3km2xB
— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) March 4, 2020
Earlier the Windies raced to 196 for 4 with Lendl Simmonds leading the way with an unbeaten 67 while putting on 74 for the opening wicket with Brandon King who slammed five fours and a six on his way to 33.
Simmons played well to the bat through the innings and faced 51 balls with seven fours and two sixes as he recorded his eighth half-century – and third in the last six innings.
Russell then came early in the batting order and smashed 32 of his 35 runs in boundaries while Captain Kieron Pollard plundered 34 off 15 to turn what seemed like it was going to be a good total into a downright commanding one.
The result marked a special moment for Pollard who played his 500th T20 match and reached 10,000 runs.
Heading into the match Pollard had 9,966 career runs across both international and franchise cricket and quickly reached 34 off 15 balls with three fours and two sixes to join Chris Gayle (13,296 runs in 404 matches) in the 10,000 runs club.
The two teams will remain in Kandy for the second and final match Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Friday.
MATCH SCORES: West Indies 196-4 off 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 67 not out, Andre Russell 35, Kieron Pollard 34, Brandon King 33)
Sri Lanka 171 off 19.1 overs (Oshane Thomas 5-28, Rovman Powell 2-31)