de Alwis spins Sri Lanka to series win

Sri Lanka Women 121 for 3 (Siriwardene 32, Silva 30) beat West Indies Women 120 (Dottin 31, de Alwis 4-25) by seven wickets
Scorecard

Sri Lanka crushed West Indies by seven wickets in the fifth and final ODI at the Premadasa in Colombo to win the series 3-2. After Suwini de Alwis had ripped through the West Indies batting, it was upto captain Shashikala Siriwardene to once again lead her team to an emphatic victory with 12 overs to spare.

Siriwardene would have been slightly worried with her decision to field first again, similar to the previous game which they had lost, as Deandra Dottin and Stefanie Taylor provided a solid start. Both were cautious in their approach, putting on 60 for the opening wicket by the 19th over.

But de Alwis struck first to have Dottin (31) caught by Sripali Weerakkody. Taylor (26) fell next holding out to Eshani Kaushalya off Chamari Polgampola. Another quick wicket of Charlene Taitt followed before Merissa Aguilleira and Anisa Mohammed strung together a 34-run partnership to take Sri Lanka to 107.

In a bizarre collapse that followed, the last six West Indian wickets fell for 13 runs. De Alwis accounted for three of them, including the dangerous Lisa Ann-King for two. She finished with 4 for 25, but it could have been a five-for had not last man Kirbyina Alexander been run out.

The target of 120 was never going to be difficult, as Sri Lanka's opening pair of Dedunu Silva and Polgampola looked at ease from the start. They coasted to 63 in the 17th over before both fell off successive overs from Mohammed. Siriwardene stroked a fluent 32 but she fell just as Sri Lanka were close to victory, with the score on 107. She had, however, done enough to completely negate the threat of a West Indies comeback, and went on to pick up the Player-of-the-Series award.