Shiv seals it with a six

Chanderpaul hit the penultimate ball for a straight four and then crashed a full toss from Vaas over the mid-wicket boundary for a remarkable victory.

8220;We8217;re happy with the win but we would have been happier if we could have sealed the victory with more wickets in hand,8221; said West Indies8217; Dwayne Bravo. 8220;We knew that Shiv was there and once he got the strike we were in with a chance.8221;

Sri Lanka, fielding several younger faces and without key bowlers Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan, had been reeling at 49 for five after Bravo claimed three early wickets, before Chamara Kapugedera 95 and Chamara Silva 67 put on a sixth wicket partnership of 159 to turn around the innings.

8220;We played a lot of good cricket and a lot of bad cricket but to come back from that situation and make 235 showed the character of the guys,8221; said Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss.

West Indies captain Chris Gayle began aggressively hitting hit eight fours in his 52 before he was trapped lbw by debutant spinner Ajantha Mendis with the home side on 109 for two.

Batting slump

But that was only the first of three wickets in seven balls 8212; the in-form Ramnaresh Sarwan was caught behind off Nuwan Kulasekara for 35 and then the badly out-of-form Marlon Samuels went to the same bowler, for a duck, after he was trapped plumb leg-before wicket.

Bravo joined Chanderpaul and clubbed two sixes over cover in a forthright knock which put West Indies back on track until he was run out on 36.

When wicket-keeper Patrick Browne 15 and all-rounder Darren Sammy 1 went, Chanderpaul was running out of partners with the required run-rate rising. 8212; Reuters

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka: 235 C Silva 67, C Kapugedera 95; Bravo 4/33 lost to West Indies: 236 C Gayle 52, S Chanderpaul 62, D Bravo 36; Kulasekera 3/43, Mendis 3/39