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Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting frm Caribean

ST. VINCENT, Kingstown, Wednesday - Brian Lara's men lived to their promise and delivered winning the third and final Cable and Wireless one-day international against Sri Lanka at Arnos Vale by six wickets here today.

But the match did not end the way Lara would have wanted. Two interruptions for rain meant that West Indies won under the Duckworth and Lewis system.

Instead of chasing Sri Lanka's moderate total of 191 in 50 overs, West Indies's final target under the Duckworth and Lewis method was 160 from 42 overs. They eventually reached it in 36.5 overs making 160-4. Sri Lanka won the series 2-1 and once again it was after a dead rubber that the West Indies had picked themselves up to win. Against Australia they lost the first four matches in the seven-match series before turning it around to win the last three games.

"A win is a win," said West Indies captain Brian Lara at a post-match press conference. "I think we were well place throughout the game and when the game was shortened we were still in touch with what was happening. I think the guys understood that we played better cricket than the Sri Lankans today and deserved to win. So we are not really going to think about the D/L system or anything about it," Lara said. It was not that West Indies were not on course to win the final game. They were first halted after 28 overs at 122 for 3 by the first shower of rain.

Then after a revised target which required them to score 186 off 48 overs, the game resumed, only to be halted once again after eight overs by another shower with West Indies at 150-4 after 36 overs. On both occasions they were well ahead of the required D/L rain target and there was no fear of them losing had the match ended then and there.

Marlon Samuels it was who kept West Indies ahead by plundering sixes at will. His unbeaten 45 off 38 balls comprised one four and three sixes, two of which came in one over from Chandana who conceded 16 runs. Coupled with two run outs he not only took the man-of-the-match award, but also the man of the series prize as well.

When they resumed for a third time West Indies's target was 160 off 42 overs. Effectively they required 10 runs to win off 36 balls and Samuels and Ricardo Powell who made 16 off 22 balls knocked them off easily in five balls from Gamage.

Vaas gave Sri Lanka the initial breakthrough in the ninth over by having Hinds mistiming an ondrive to Dilshan at mid-on with his score on 19 and Lara greeted Dharmasena's first ball with a six over mid on, to bring up the West Indies 50 in the 13th over. He however fell to the next ball, a slower delivery bowled around the wicket, off which he attempted another big hit but only succeeded in getting the leading edge to Gamage at mid-off.

Lara's departed at 54 in the 14th over, but West Indies who were required to make less than two runs an over at the start of their innings kept their patience which saw the normally fast scoring Chris Gayle, making 21 off 75 balls and Sarwan 25 off 51 balls before being dismissed. But Samuels and Powell made sure of victory with an unfinished stand of 34 off 31 balls.

With this victory West Indies maintained their fine record at this venue. It was their 12th win in 13 one-day internationals, the only defeat being against Pakistan in 1992-93. The West Indies came up with a much improved performance on the field to dismiss Sri Lanka for 191 in 50 overs and on this occasion kept their heads cool when chasing the target.

Sri Lanka virtually struggled for runs on a slow and sluggish pitch which strangled their stroke-making. The slow outfield didn't help either and the trend of the innings was similar to those played in the Bank Alfalah Cup matches at Dambulla.

Top scorer was Mahela Jayawardene who made 51 off 74 balls without hitting a single boundary. He and Upul Chandana (who scored 33 off 65 balls) put together the best partnership of the match - 67 off 109 balls for the fifth wicket. But although they spilled a few catches again, West Indies were brilliant on the field and their bowlers bowled to their field which resulted in only five boundaries and two sixes being scored in the entire Sri Lankan innings.

Lanka overconfident

The best partnership was between Jayawardene and Dharmasena when they added 42 off 39 balls for the seventh wicket. Teenage fast bowler Jerome Taylor had a good one-day debut finishing with two for 39 off 10 overs. Off spinner Ryan Hurley tied the batting down with figures of one for 25 off 10 and Collymore ended up with 3 for 28 off his 10 overs.

Brian Lara who won his third straight toss of the series said that it was a good batting pitch and although he was tempted to bat first, he eventually decided to put the opposition in and it paid off.

"We spoke about how important the victory will be. We lost the one-day series but most importantly we needed to win this game psychologically to help us especially in the Test series," said Lara.

"We couldn't leave here with a whitewash against Sri Lanka and face the Test matches. I am quite happy the boys came out and showed their true metal and won this game quite comfortably," he said.

Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu said that overconfidence led to his team's defeat today.

"We tried to get ourselves motivated the day before the match because everybody knew the series was already won. More than talking strategy at yesterday's team meeting it was to try and lift the morale up," said Atapattu.

"We were a bit over confident coming into the game and obviously we had reasons to do so. But in the game of cricket you cannot do that and it showed on the field today," he said.

Atapattu said that things didn't go according to plan and they were 30-40 runs short of what they should have made. He however conceded that West Indies played better cricket than them on the day.

SRI LANKA

S. Jayasuriya run out		 	 8
R. Kaluwitharana c Lara b Collymore	14
M. Atapattu c Hurley b Taylor		25
K. Sangakkara c Lara b Hurley		11
U. Chandana lbw b Taylor		33
M. Jayawardene b Collymore		51
M. Dilshan c and b Samuels		 0
K. Dharmasena c Samuels b Collymore	21
C. Vaas run out Samuels		 	 6
M. Muralitharan b Gayle		 	 4
D. Gamage not out			 2
Extras (LB-4, NB-1, W-11)		16
TOTAL (all out, 50 overs)		191

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-10, 2-28, 3-55, 4-63, 5-130, 
	        6-134, 7-176, 8-184, 9-185.
BOWLING:Powell 9-0-37-0, 
	Collymore 10-0-28-3, 
	Hurley 10-1-25-1, 
	Taylor 10-0-39-2, 
	Gayle 6-0-29-1, 
	Samuels 5-0-29-1.

WEST INDIES

C. Gayle b Chandana			21
W. Hinds c Dilshan b Vaas		19
B. Lara c Gamage b Dharmasena		14
R. Sarwan c Jayasuriya b Muralitharan	25
M. Samuels not out			45
R. Powell not out			16
Extras (LB-4, W-10, NB-6)		20
TOTAL (for four wickets, 36.5 overs)	160

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-36, 2-54, 3-81, 4-126.

BOWLING:Vaas 8-1-25-1, Gamage 3.5-0-27-0, 
	Muralitharan 9-1-26-1, 
	Dharmasena 7-0-27-1, 
	Chandana 4-0-25-1, 
	Dilshan 1-0-6-0, 
	Jayasuriya 4-0-20-0.
NOTE: West Indies were given a Duckworth-Lewis 
revised total of 160 runs from 42 overs.

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