COLOMBO // The opener Upul Tharanga struck his ninth one-day century to propel Sri Lanka to a crushing eight-wicket win over the West Indies on Thursday.
West Indies was bowled out for 203 in 50 overs after being asked to bat first by Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
After a brief rain interruption, Sri Lanka was given a revised target of 197 in 47 overs under the Duckworth/Lewis method and reached it with 27 balls to spare.
Sri Lanka leads the three-match series 1-0 after the first match was drawn.
Sri Lanka lost opener Tillakaratne Dilshan with the total on 32, caught behind by Carlton Baugh off seamer Ravi Rampaul for 11 runs.
Sangakkara joined Tharanga for a useful 70-run partnership to seize the initiative before Sangakkara was caught by Chris Gayle off seamer Dwayne Bravo for 20.
The best partnership of the day, an unbeaten 97 runs, came between Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene to seal victory.
Tharanga laid anchor and batted through the innings to finish with 101 not out off 143 balls including seven boundaries. Jayawardene made a brisk 48 not out in 46 balls with five boundaries.
West Indies' innings started with promise but Sri Lanka's bowlers, led by Lasith Malinga, deprived them of a big score.
After the visitors lost both in-form opener Adrian Barath and Gayle with the score on 45, the bowlers took crucial wickets to end several promising partnerships, and put the home side in a winning position.
Barath, who scored 113 for a maiden ODI century in the previous match, was trapped lbw by seamer Nuwan Kulasekara and off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan snared Gayle with his first ball, caught at slip by Thilan Samaraweera. Gayle made 28 in 30 balls including four boundaries and a six.
Darren Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan shared a valuable 49-run stand for the third wicket before Sarwan was run out to a straight drive by Bravo which hit the stumps after touching the bowler's fingers.
Bravo hit three sixes in his 39 runs while his half-brother Dwayne Bravo also made 39 to become top scorers for the West Indies.
Malinga who took the wickets of Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Ravi Rampaul, finished with 3-30 while Muralitharan and Kulasekara also picked up two wickets each.
SCOREBOARD
West Indies:
C Gayle c Samaraweera b Muralitharan 28
A Barath lbw b Kulasekara 12
Darren Bravo lbw b Malinga 39
R Sarwan run out 21
Dwayne Bravo b Herath 39
K Pollard b Malinga 4
C Baugh not out 28
D Sammy run out 4
N Miller c Jayawardene b Muralitharan 0
R Rampaul b Malinga 1
K Roach b Kulasekara 9
Extras: (b-1, lb-8, w-9) 18
Total: (all out, 50 overs) 203
Fall of wickets: 1-45, 2-45, 3-94, 4-132, 5-138, 6-175, 7-187, 8-187, 9-192, 10-203
Bowling: Malinga 10-0-30-3 (3w), Kulasekara 10-1-42-2 (1w), Mathews 4-0-20-0, Muralitharan 10-2-42-2 (4w), Dilshan 7-0-27-0, Herath 9-1-33-1 (1w)
Sri Lanka:
U Tharanga not out 101
T Dilshan c Baugh b Rampaul 11
K Sangakkara c Gayle b Dwayne Bravo 20
M Jayawardene not out 48
Extras: (lb-3, w-16) 19
Total: (for two wickets, 42.3 overs) 199
Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-102
Bowling: Rampaul 7-0-27-1 (2w), Roach 8-0-29-0 (3w), Sammy 9-0-42-0 (1w), Gayle 4-0-18-0 (1w), Dwayne Bravo 5-0-29-1, Miller 6.3-0-33-0 (2w), Pollard 3-0-18-0 (1w)
