The Sri Lanka spinners, led by Ramesh Mendis, ripped through West Indies in the final innings when they came out to chase 348. By stumps , reducing them at 52/6, at the end of Day 4 of the first Test in Galle, in pursuit of 348.
Mendis, along with Lasith Embuldeniya, constantly targeted the stumps. They shared all six wickets, and West Indies were left reeling on 18/6 at one stage. Nkrumah Bonner (18*) and Joshua Da Silva (15*) then held on before bad light forced early stumps. Barring them, no West Indies batter managed to reach double digits in the second innings. They still need to score 296 to win this match, with four wickets in hand.
Fifteen out of 16 West Indies wickets have fallen to spinners so far in this Test match.
West Indies resumed the day on 224/9, and only managed six more, as Praveen Jayawickrama trapped Shannon Gabriel leg before completing his four-wicket haul. Dimuth Karunaratne (83) and Angelo Mathews (69*) then scored quickly, adding 123 for the third wicket, to aggregate a sizable lead before declaring. For West Indies, Rahkeem Cornwall and Jomel Warrican claimed two wickets apiece.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 386 (Dimuth Karunaratne 147; Roston Chase 5-83) and 191/4 decl. (Dimuth Karunaratne 83; Jomel Warrican 2-42) lead West Indies 230 (Kyle Mayers 45; Praveen Jayawickrama 4-40) and 52/6 (Nkrumah Bonner 18*; Ramesh Mendis 4-17) by 296 runs.