After routing the Sri Lankans for 201 in 48.4 overs, the West Indies, who gave an inspired display in the field with effective bowling and purposeful fielding, meekly capitulated for 146 in 41 overs.

Captain Brian Lara, batting at No.5, fought a lone hand for an unbeaten 64 off 130 balls with four boundaries as Sri Lanka took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

The win, Sri Lanka’s fourth on the trot against the West Indies brought Lara’s side back down to earth with a thump following their hat-trick of victories at the end of the preceding One-Day series against Australia.

Sri Lanka’s ace off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan sliced through the lower order to finish with the excellent figures of three for 17 off seven probing overs and gain the man-of-the-match award.

However, left-arm swing bowler Chaminda Vaas, two for 16, and his new-ball partner Prabath Nissanka, two for 27, scythed through the West Indies’ top-order, reducing them to a wretched 19 for four, a position from which the Caribbean cricketers never recovered.

Openers Chris Gayle and the in-form Wavell Hinds both fell for ducks while Ricardo Powell and Ramnaresh Sarwan managed just five and eight respectively.

Marlon Samuels made 29 off 38 balls with five boundaries as he and Lara tried to repair the early damage in a 54-run fifth-wicket partnership.

Once Samuels edged a wide delivery from fast-medium bowler Dharshana Gamage and was caught low down by the diving wicketkeeper Romesh Kaluwitharana, Lara failed to get the necessary support from the lower order.

Muralitharan virtually settled the outcome when he removed wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs for 14 and David Bernard for a second-ball duck in the space of three deliveries.

Jacobs cut a bouncing delivery straight to point and an out-of-sorts Bernard was bowled behind his back.

The West Indies’ woes were compounded when Vasbert Drakes was run-out for four and Mervyn Dillon caught at short fine leg, sweeping at Muralitharan.

Lara, who batted with great care and attention, duly completed his fifty off 114 balls with only two fours while adding 25 runs for the last wicket with Corey Collymore, who was eventually trapped leg-before-wicket by all-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan for three.

Earlier, fast bowler Dillon led the West Indies' bowling effort by taking three for 39 in 9.4 overs while Samuels bowled his flat off-breaks miserly, taking one for 31 in 10 accurate overs.

Dillon struck in the day’s first over when the experienced left-handed opening batsman Sanath Jayasuriya was controversially caught by wicketkeeper Jacobs for a duck.

Jayasuriya flirted at a delivery angled across his body and umpire Billy Doctrove upheld the appeal from the West Indian fielders, much to the batsman’s dismay.

Sri Lanka never really recovered from this early setback even though the diminutive wicketkeeper Romesh Kaluwitharana rode his luck in compiling a fighting 54 off 75 balls with four fours.

All-rounder Kumar Dharmasena also weighed in with 40 off 54 balls as he and Dilshan, who made 27, admirably revived Sri Lanka’s innings from a wobbly 112 for five by adding 59 valuable runs for the sixth wicket.

After Jayasuriya’s unfortunate dismissal, captain Marvan Atapattu and Kaluwitharana, who was struck a painful blow on the helmet and also in the rib-cage by seamer Corey Collymore, featured in a second-wicket stand of 46 runs.

But once Atapattu got a leading edge to a flighted delivery from off-spinner Samuels and departed for 22 as the bowler held a return catch above his head in his first over, wickets fell at regular intervals.

Middle order batsmen Kumar Sangakkara (15) and Mahela Jayawardene (8) both fell cheaply as Lara made a number of successful bowling changes.

Left-hander Sangakkara, dropped by Powell at second slip off Collymore before getting off the mark, gifted his wicket when he charged Bernard and lifted a high catch to Sarwan at deep extra cover.

Jayawardene was next to go at 107 for four, caught by Dillon, coming off the midwicket boundary after he badly mishit a short delivery in the very first over from Hinds’ friendly slow-medium offering.

Five runs later, Kaluwitharana’s courageous innings ended when he was beaten by a throw from Hinds to Jacobs while attempting a third run.

Dilshan and Dharmasena brought some respectability to Sri Lanka’s total in a half-century partnership before the last five wickets capitulated for just 40 runs.

Drakes bowled Dilshan for 27 and Dillon returned to bowl Vaas for 10. He also sent back Dharmasena, through a brilliant leg-side catch by Jacobs.

Collymore had a hand in the last two dismissals, removing Muralitharan for three, courtesy a well-judged catch by Samuels and then hitting the stumps at the bowler’s end with a direct under-arm throw from mid-off to run out Dharshana Gamage.

Needing to score at four runs for their fourth one-day win on a trot, the West Indies made a disastrous start.

Hinds, fresh from back-to-back centuries against Australia in Grenada last weekend, was bowled behind his legs by fast bowler Prabath Nissanka.

In the next over, Vaas induced Gayle, who had been missed at first slip by Jayawardene in the first over, to edge a swinging deliver into Kaluwitharana’s gloves.

Powell, promoted to No.3, was unsettled by the pacy Nissanka, who struck him twice on the helmet with successive deliveries before he failed to negotiate an off-cutter from Vaas and was trapped leg-before-wicket.

Sarwan cut and drove Nissanka for two boundaries but was undone by a shrewd piece of field setting by an alert Atapattu.

Realising the stroke-making Guyanese was driving the ball uppishly, Atapattu positioned Sangakkara at a short cover point and off the very next ball, Sarwan fell to the trap when his powerful drive was spectacularly plucked from the air by the fielder.

Lara and Samuels gave the West Indies a dint of hope when they were together but it all vanished when the stylish Jamaican departed at 73 for five and Muralitharan removed Jacobs and Bernard to leave the regional cricketers tottering on 106 for seven.

It required a Lara miracle at that stage but he was left high and dry as no one stayed around to allow him to perform it.

SRI LANKA innings
S. Jayasuriya c wkp. Jacobs b Dillon 0

R.Kaluwitharana run-out 54

M.Atapattu c & b Samuels 22

K.Sangakkara c Sarwan b Bernard 15

M.Jayawardene c Dillon b Hinds 8

T.Dilshan b Drakes 27

K.Dharmasena c wkp. Jacobs b Dillon 40

C.Vaas b Dillon 10

M.Muralitharan c Samuels b Collymore 3

P.Nissanka not out 7

D.Gamage run-out 1

Extras: (nb-4, w-10) 14

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-46, 3-83, 4-107, 5-112, 6-171, 7-186, 8-192, 9-193.

Bowling: Dillon 9.4-1-39-3 (nb-1, w-2), Collymore 9-0-44-1 (nb-2, w-1), Samuels 10-0-31-1, Drakes 10-0-43-1 (nb-1, w-2), Bernard 2-0-11-1 (w-5), Hinds 6-0-17-1, Gayle 2-0-16-0.

WEST INDIES innings
C.Gayle c wkp. Kaluwitharana b Vaas 0

W.Hinds b Nissanka 0

R.Powell lbw b Vaas 5

R.Sarwan c Sangakkara b Nissanka 8

B.Lara not out 64

M.Samuels c wkp. Kaluwitharana b Gamage 29

R.Jacobs c Jayasuriya b Muralitharan 14

D.Bernard b Muralitharan 0

M.Dillon c Atapattu b Muralitharan 2

C.Collymore lbw b Dilshan 3

Extras: (b-1, lb-1, nb-11, w-3) 16

Total: (all out, 41 overs) 146

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-4, 3-15, 4-19, 5-73, 6-105, 7-106, 8-118, 9-121.