International Cricket : West Indies vs Sri Lanka 3/05/2021 Cricket Prediction

The West Indies will face Sri Lanka in the second match of their T20 International Series. The match is scheduled to be played on Friday March 5th, 2021 at approximately 6:00pm EST, and will be held at the Coolidge Ground in Antigua. The West Indies lead the series 1-0 and will be seeking to wrap the series up with a win here. Can Sri Lanka win to stay alive in the series?

Sri Lanka will be looking to rebound here after a very disappointing opening match where they were let down by the majority of their players. A couple of the batsmen got starts in Niroshan Dickwella and Pathum Nissanka but failed to convert. Their total of 131/9 in 20 overs was never going to truly going to challenge a dynamic West Indies batting line-up and this will need to be hugely improved in order for them to compete in the second match. The bowling attack was relatively good, especially de Silva but the batting order needs to give them some assistance and give them a competitive total to defend. 

The West Indies will have been very happy with their fielding/bowling performance, limiting the visitors to such a small total. Debutant Kevin Sinclair bowled very well, and was ably supported by Jason Holder and Obed McCoy. However, while they won, they will not be happy with how their batsmen performed, with some of them needlessly gifting their wicket away. They will need more from the experienced Chris Gayle and Nicholas Pooran and they will both be looking to bounce back here after being dismissed first ball. West Indies strength is certainly in their batting which is extremely deep and they will be looking to wrap the series up here. They enter this match as the firm favorites and it will be shocking if they failed to win here. They are not expect to make any changes to a winning side. 

I expect a much improved performance from Sri Lanka, but the West Indies will still win this match relatively comfortably. Sri Lanka are not the force they once were and are struggling with injuries and key players being missing. West Indies are the lower ranked side by they are a highly experienced and explosive unit and will be too much for the visitors to handle.