Sri Lanka overcome Bonner-Da Silva resistance to take a 1-0 lead

Lasith Embuldeniya (5-46) bagged his maiden fifer against West Indies while Ramesh Mendis picked up a career best 4-64 to help Sri Lanka overcome Nkrumah Bonner and Joshua Da Silva's resistance and register a 187-run victory on Day 5 of the opening Test in Galle. Having reduced West Indies to 18/6 on Day 4, Sri Lanka saw Bonner and Da Silva put on a century partnership. But, despite the seventh wicket pair facing close to 350 deliveries, Sri Lanka managed to secure the victory in the second session on Thursday (November 25).

Set 348 for an unlikely win, West Indies were bowled out for 160 as their wait for their first Test win in Sri Lanka continued. Bonner remained stranded on 68 off 220 deliveries when Shannon Gabriel was the last wicket, becoming Embuldeniya's fifth scalp. Earlier in the session, Rahkeem Cornwall, who was involved in a 49-run stand with Bonner, was the first to fall after Lunch when he tried to loft a Praveen Jayawickrama delivery. A few overs later, Jomel Warrican handed a catch to Oshada Fernando at silly point. Gabriel couldn't do much when he was squared up by Embuldeniya.

West Indies started the day at 52/6 and fought for much of the opening session as Da Silva and Bonner dug deep. Their doggedness lasted until just before Lunch when Da Silva edged to first slip off Embuldeniya, which ended a stand worth exactly 100. Cornwall tried to build a partnership with Bonner but Sri Lanka wrapped things up quickly in the second session to take the series lead.

Sri Lanka did themselves the biggest favour by opting to bat. And then their skipper Dimuth Karunaratne drove home the advantage by scoring a ton while Pathum Nissanka and Dhananjaya de Silva scored fifties. A total of 386, if not daunting, looked plump enough to put the opposition under pressure and West Indies didn't really put up much of a fight. Despite a handful of players getting starts in their first innings, none scored a fifty as West Indies were bundled out for 230.

Karunaratne set the ball rolling again in the second innings and Angelo Matthews joined in this time as Lanka added some quick runs to give West Indies a target of 348, which proved well beyond their reach despite the fight shown by Bonner and Da Silva.

Sri Lanka and West Indies face off at the same venue in the second Test which starts on November 29.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 386 (Dimuth Karunaratne 147, Dhananjaya De Silva 61, Roston Chase 5-83) & 191/4 decl. (Dimuth Karunaratne 83, Angelo Mathews 69*) beat West Indies 230 (Kyle Mayers 45; Praveen Jayawickrama 4-40) and 52/6 (Nkrumah Bonner 68*, Joshua Da Silva 54, Ramesh Mendis 5-67) by 187 runs.