Associated Press

Colombo, July 16:

Mahela Jayawardene anchored Sri Lanka’s impressive six-wicket victory over the West Indies in the first Test as the hosts took a 1-0 lead in their two-match series. Jayawardene’s partnerships with Thilan Samaraweera for the fourth wicket and Tillekeratne Dilshan in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand, saw Sri Lanka recover from 49/3 in the 12th over to reach 175/4 on the fourth day. Undefeated with a second innings of 41, Jayawardene halted a top-order slide as fiery West Indies paceman Jermain Lawson threatened to destroy Sri Lanka’s aspirations. Dilshan was undefeated on 30. Muttiah Muralitharan helped set the stage for victory before lunch when he notched his 45th five-wicket haul in Tests. Muralitharan’s seven-wicket haul in two innings takes him to a career total of 539 wickets, still well short of Shane Warne’s record of 583. Muralitharan bamboozled a youthful and inexperienced West Indies lower-order when it resumed on an overnight score of 59-6. Samaraweera took only 53 balls to bring up his 50 in an unbroken fourth wicket partnership of 86 with Jayawardene. Jermain Lawson, who took four wickets in both innings, threatened the Sri Lanka victory celebrations when he grabbed the three early wickets to have figures of three for 16 before Jayawardene and Samaraweera steadied the innings.