Bravo lifts West Indies after early blow

KANDY, Sri Lanka, (Reuters) – West Indian Darren Bravo  lifted a rain-hit opening day of the third and final test  against Sri Lanka with a fluent, unbeaten 63, his third  half-century of the series, today.
Bravo’s knock, which included nine fours, enabled West  Indies to recover to 134 for two after the exit of Chris Gayle  for a duck from the first ball of the game.

Darren Bravo
Darren Bravo

Bravo put on 115 with Devon Smith who scored 55 off 100  balls (seven fours). Shivnarine Chanderpaul was unbeaten on 11  when bad light ended play 45 minutes before the scheduled close.
Sri Lanka missed chances by Smith and Bravo off the luckless  Dilhara Fernando who ended up wicketless and conceding 50 runs.  Fernando had replaced injured Nuwan Kulsekara in the home team.
Thilan Samaraweera failed to cling on to a difficult chance  at gully offered by Smith at 45. Mahela Jayawardene, one of the  safest slip fielders in the Sri Lanka side, dropped a sitter at  third slip when Bravo was on 56.
Only 8.3 overs were possible in the afternoon session before  rain forced an early tea.
Young fast bowler Suranga Lakmal had baptised international  cricket’s newest test venue, the Pallakele Stadium, by  dismissing Gayle, trapped lbw.
West Indies, put into bat, made two changes from the last  test with Smith and Nelon Pascal replacing Adrian Barath and  Shane Shillingford.
The series stands tied at 0-0 after two draws.

Scoreboard

West Indies first innings

C Gayle lbw b Lakmal 0

D Smith lbw b Mendis 55

Darren Bravo not out 63

S Chanderpaul not out 11

Extras: (lb-2, nb-2, w-1) 5

Total: (two wickets, 40 overs) 134

Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-115

To bat: B Nash, Dwayne Bravo, C Baugh, D Sammy, S Benn, N Pascal, K Roach.

Bowling (to date): Lakmal 10-3-20-1, Mathews 6-2-27-0, Dilshan 3-0-4-0, Fernando 10-1-50-0 (1w), Mendis 11-2-31-1 (2nb).