Karunaratne ton steers Sri Lanka on dominant day

An unbeaten century from Dimuth Karunaratne ensured Sri Lanka negotiated the opening day of the series with a sense of calm and lost only two wickets on a slow Galle pitch. Sri Lanka grew increasingly dominant as the day progressed. The final session produced over 43% of the runs they scored on the day, and ended with a punchy Karunaratne straight drive that took the score from 246 to 250.

West Indies did themselves no good by dropping two catches in the middle session. The first spill didn't cost them - Lahiru Thirimanne, the reprieved batsman, was disimissed soon after - but the other - a backtracking Jerome Taylor failing to grasp Dinesh Chandimal at mid-on when he miscued an attempted pull off Devendra Bishoo - certainly did. Chandimal, who was on 11 at that point, went on to end the day unbeaten on 72, having added 149 with Karunaratne.

Karunaratne's innings was a triumph of restraint and adherence to a simple plan. In the morning session, he left resolutely when the ball was angled across him, and didn't get lured into indiscretion outside off even when the quicks went around the wicket. He read the lengths well, picking up most of his runs with checked drives through cover - he rarely went hard at the ball while playing this stroke, mindful of the slowness of the pitch - and glides and cuts behind point. Against the legspinner Bishoo, he used his feet well, coming down the track to either whip him with the turn or to get close enough to the pitch of the ball to smother any potential misbehaviour out of the rough.

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