ST GEORGE’S – In a cap­ti­vat­ing con­test at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Grena­da on Fri­day, Sri Lan­ka Women’s spin­ners or­ches­trat­ed the telling blow to help their side to seal a nar­row 10-run vic­to­ry over the West In­dies Women in the first One Day In­ter­na­tion­al, tak­ing a 1-0 lead in the three-match se­ries.

In a match de­fined by mo­men­tum swings, the vis­i­tors post­ed a com­pet­i­tive 240 for six be­fore their slow bowlers com­bined to bowl the hosts out for 230 with just two balls re­main­ing in the in­nings, leav­ing the sparse Grena­di­an crowd stunned.

The foun­da­tion of Sri Lan­ka’s to­tal was laid by a mag­nif­i­cent 66 from Harshitha Sama­rawick­ra­ma, who com­bined sta­bil­i­ty with ag­gres­sion dur­ing her 105-ball knock.

She found able sup­port from open­er Hasi­ni Per­era, who struck a flu­ent 61 from 81 balls to give the in­nings ear­ly im­pe­tus.

The pair bat­ted with ma­tu­ri­ty and poise to take their team from 49 for one to 135 in the 32nd over, be­fore Paer­era was caught off Aaliyah Al­leyne.

Just when West In­dies, led by the ever-re­li­able Hay­ley Matthews 2-46 and Kar­ish­ma Ramharack 2-57, looked to have wres­tled back con­trol, Sama­rawick­ra­ma en­gi­neered valu­able low­er-or­der runs to push the to­tal past the 230-mark.

Cap­tain Chamari Atha­p­aththu chipped in with 27, with Kav­isha Dil­hari pro­vid­ing a use­ful cameo of 22, while Vish­mi Gu­naratne re­mained un­beat­en on 16 as the tail wagged ef­fec­tive­ly.

In re­ply, the West In­dies in­nings nev­er tru­ly found its rhythm. The hosts slumped to 49 for three, then 80 for five, as left-arm spin­ner Ino­ka Ranaweera be­gan work­ing her mag­ic.

The 40-year-old vet­er­an fin­ished with phe­nom­e­nal fig­ures of ten overs, one maid­en and 4 for 44.

Just when it seemed the game was slip­ping away, 22-year-old Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow showed her in­ter­na­tion­al pedi­gree with a com­posed maid­en ODI fifty to go along with a classy half-cen­tu­ry from the wily old vet­er­an Stafanie Tay­lor.

The young bat­ter Tay­lor res­ur­rect­ed the in­nings with an 89-run part­ner­ship for the sixth wick­et that brought the crowd to its feet and swung mo­men­tum firm­ly back to the hosts.

Tay­lor, typ­i­cal­ly el­e­gant in her stroke­play, looked des­tined to guide her team home be­fore a dis­as­ter struck, as she was run out for a bril­liant­ly craft­ed 66 from 83 balls with five fours and a six.

The wick­et proved the turn­ing point as the re­quired rate climbed. Glas­gow brought up her fifty in style, but her dis­missal trig­gered some­what of a col­lapse.

The low­er or­der felt the weight of the task and the pres­sure of mount­ing re­quired runs, los­ing their last four wick­ets for 61 runs. Dil­hari with 3-49 re­turned to clean up the tail, leav­ing Al­leyne strand­ed on 24 not out as the fi­nal wick­et fell.

Ranaweera, whose spell in the mid­dle overs choked the life out of the West In­dies chase, was de­served­ly named Play­er of the Match.

The two sides go at it again in the sec­ond ODI on Sun­day.

CMC

Sum­marised scores

SRI LAN­KA 240-6 in 50 overs (Harshitha Sama­rawick­ra­ma 66, Hasi­ni Per­era 61, Ni­lak­shi­ka Sil­va 22, Kav­isha Dil­hari 22; Hay­ley Matthews 2-46, Kar­ish­ma Ramharack 2-57).

WEST IN­DIES 230 in 49.4 overs (Stafanie Tay­lor 66, Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow 50, Aaliyah Al­leyne 24 not out; Ino­ka Ranaweera 4-44, Kav­isha Dil­hari 3-49).

Re­sult: Sri Lan­ka Women won by 10 runs.

Toss: West In­dies won, elect­ed to field

Play­er of the Match: Ino­ka Ranaweera

Se­ries re­sult: Sri Lan­ka Women lead the 3-match se­ries 1-0