Sri Lanka vs West Indies 2020, 2nd T20I: King and Russell help Windies demolish Sri Lanka by 7 wickets

Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating defeat to West Indies in the second T20I at Pallekele as the visitors comfortably chased down the target of 156 runs with 7 wickets in hand and 3 overs to spare.

West Indies lost the wicket of Lendl Simmons (9 runs off 8 balls) in the third over. However, the explosive batting of the other opener Brandon King (43 runs off 21 balls) and the steady batting of Shimron Hetmyer (43 runs off 42 balls) did not allow the Sri Lankan bowlers to get into a rhythm.

King took on the Sri Lankan bowlers right from the first over and unsettled them by sending the ball to all the corners of the ground. Courtesy his fiery batting, West Indies scored 61 runs in the powerplay overs and held a strong position at the halfway mark.

King and Hetmyer added 46 runs for the second wicket in just 25 balls, thoroughly dominating the bowlers.

Brandon King

On the other hand, the Sri Lankan bowlers struggled to find their feet on the back of such a middling target. The injury to Wanindu Hasaranga and the wayward bowling of Lasith Malinga (0/46) further increased the hosts' troubles.

Although Angelo Mathews (1/26) sent back Simmons early and Lahiru Kumara (1/28) took the wicket of King later on, the 34-run stand between Hetmyer and Rovman Powell (17 runs off 17 balls) closed the doors on them.

Finally, it was Andre Russell who hammered the final nail in the coffin of Sri Lanka's hopes with his 14-ball 40 which included 6 sixes.

Earlier, West Indies won the toss and elected to bowl first. The West Indian bowlers proved the decision right as they struck at regular intervals without allowing the Sri Lankan batsmen to settle in.

Some fine bowling by Fabian Allen (2/24) and Oshane Thomas (1/24) helped send back Avishka Fernando (9 runs off 10 balls), Shehan Jayasurya (16 runs off 18 balls) and Kusal Perera (15 runs off 13 balls) and reduce Sri Lanka to 48-3 in 6.4 overs.

Oshane Thomas

Kusal Mendis (11 runs off 13 balls) and Angelo Mathews (23 runs off 22 balls) tried to rescue the Sri Lankan innings with a 33-run partnership for the fourth wicket. But the departure of the former once again allowed West Indies to take control.

Thanks to the cameos by Dasun Shanaka (31 runs off 24 balls) and Thirsara Perera (21 runs off 13 balls), Sri Lanka finally managed to reach a score of 155-6 at the end of 20 overs. But that was never going to be enough against a power-packed team like West Indies.

The Sri Lankan bowlers weren't able to find a way to tame the West Indian batting carnival, which eventually led to their defeat - and thus the loss of the series by the margin 0-2.