Herath spins Sri Lanka towards victory

Sri Lanka continued their march towards a comprehensive win in the opening West Indies Test by picking up four wickets.

Sri Lanka continued their march towards a comprehensive win in the opening West Indies Test by picking up four wickets on the fourth morning on Saturday with Rangana Herath once again emerging as the home side's most potent weapon.

The touring side were reduced to 156 for six wickets in their second innings at lunch, still needing 77 runs to avoid an innings defeat in Galle.

Jermaine Blackwood (49) and captain Jason Holder, leading the side for the first time in tests, were at the crease for West Indies at the interval.

Herath added two wickets to his previous day's removal of opener Kraigg Brathwaite (34) to take his match haul to nine.

After resuming on 67-2, West Indies lost nightwatchman Devendra Bishoo (10) in the wily left-arm spinner's third over and then experienced batsman Marlson Samuels was out lbw off the first ball he faced.

Samuels did not offer a shot to a straight delivery from Herath and more surprisingly, decided to waste a review by challenging the umpire's decision. The bowler's hat-trick ball was fended away by Blackwood.

West Indies' hopes of delaying Sri Lanka's charge rested on Darren Bravo (31), who scored a 50 in the first innings, but the left-hander edged Nuwan Pradeep behind after captain Angelo Mathews' decision to allow the paceman one more over was vindicated.

Blackwood and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin (11) stitched together a dogged 48-run stand for the sixth wicket with the former using his feet well against the spinners.

However, debutant Milinda Siriwardena ended the pair's resistance when Ramdin edged a catch to Kaushal Silva at second slip.

The second match of the two-Test series starts in Colombo on Thursday.

Reuters