GALLE: Rangana Herath continued to spin a web around the West Indies batsmen as Sri Lanka reduced the tourists to 134 for five wickets in their first innings on the third day of the opening test at Galle on Friday.

The wily left-arm spinner picked up two more wickets to take his tally to four in the innings, with West Indies still trailing the hosts by 350 runs and staring at the follow-on.

Denesh Ramdin (11) and Jason Holder (nought), leading the side for the first time in tests, were at the crease at the interval with West Indies still needing 151 runs to make Sri Lanka bat in their second innings.

Darren Bravo (50) was the sole West Indies batsman to offer some resistance, grabbing his 12th half-century in tests before falling to Herath with Dinesh Chandimal completing a brilliant acrobatic catch at mid-wicket to dismiss the left-hander.

Herath struck in his second over of the day, and the fourth of the morning, with an innocuous delivery which Marlon Samuels (11) made a mess of.

The batsman failed to connect on a pull shot and the ball, going way down the leg side, hit his thigh and went on to disturb the stumps.

Jermaine Blackwood (11) did not last long either, edging Dhammika Prasad to debutant Milinda Siriwardana at slip where the fielder juggled a catch but held on.