Tea Sri Lanka 163 for 1 (Karunaratne 89*, Nisaanka 56) vs West Indies

Pathum Nissanka flashed at a wide Shannon Gabriel delivery and sent a catch off the outside edge to be out for 56. But aside from this, West Indies had little other joy after lunch - Dimuth Karunaratne striding to his fifth fifty-plus score in five innings, as Sri Lanka set themselves up for a big first-innings total, on a pitch that had become easier to bat on since the morning.

Although before lunch, Karunaratne had been watchful, he went looking for scoring opportunities after the break - using his feet to hit the spinners through mid off, shuffling to the offside to glance the ball fine, employing the reverse sweep more frequently. He went to tea on 89 not out off 181 balls, having struck 11 boundaries. If he scores the 11 further runs he requires to move to triple figures, he would make his third hundred in four innings; against Bangladesh earlier in the year, he had hit 244 and 118.

For West Indies, it was another session of close calls and half chances. Karunaratne was almost bowled by a sharp-turning Jomel Warrican delivery early in the session, but the ball narrowly passed the leg stump, and evaded even the keeper to go for four byes. Two overs later, Nissanka danced down the track to launch the same bowler over mid on, but didn't quite hit it perfectly, and the shot grazed the outstretched fingers of Shannon Gabriel before continuing to the rope.

Later, Karunaratne drove Rahkeem Cornwall low between his legs, the bowler not able to get low quickly enough to complete the tough chance. And finally, Oshada Fernando came down the track to Warrican, didn't quite get to the pitch of the delivery, and sent a catch at waist-height to the bowler's left; Warrican twisted around to get a hand to the ball, but couldn't cling on. Fernando had been on three.

Despite these hiccups, however, Sri Lanka's progress soon after lunch seemed fairly straightforward. The first session had brought only six boundaries, but both Karunaratne and Nissanka began to find the rope more regularly, using the depth of their crease to turn shortish balls from the spinners into deliveries they could whack away square. Nissanka used the sweep to good effect as well. Their partnership went into triple figures in the 39th over, and their eventual 139 together, would be Sri Lanka's best opening stand ever against West Indies.

Nissanka, the more conservative of the opening partners, reached fifty off the 133rd delivery he faced, but would be out soon after, chasing a full, wide delivery from Gabriel.

In the morning, Karunaratne had been dropped on 14 by Jermaine Blackwood, who couldn't hold on to a fast-traveling outside edge to his right, off the bowling of Cornwall. West Indies had also burned two reviews - one looking for an lbw decision against Karunaratne, who missed a reverse sweep against Warrican, and the second searching for a caught-behind against Nissanka, who had missed the Roston Chase slider.

The visitors had further misfortune, when a full-blooded Karunaratne pull late in the morning session hit debutant Jeremy Solozano in the helmet, at short leg. Solozano appeared groggy and went down immediately. He was stretchered off the field and taken to hospital in Colombo for further tests. If he cannot return to play the match, West Indies are entitled to name a concussion substitute.