West Indies slip to 295 after Ganga's 99
Sajeewa Weerakoon, the left-arm spinner, repaid the faith showed in him by the selectors taking 6 for 62
Sri Lanka A 68 for 3 trail West Indies A 295 (Ganga 99, Marshall 82, Weerakoon 6-62) by 227 runs
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Weerakoon, who was selected ahead of Kaushal Lokuarachchi, the legspinner, started a typical West Indies batting collapse. He dimissed Daren Ganga, the West Indies captain, in the last over before tea, by bowling him behind his legs for 99. At that stage West Indies, after choosing to batting first, had progressed to a healthy 228 for 3 before caving in for 295. In an action packed 16 minutes after the tea break West Indies lost 4 for 6 and, within the space of 13 balls either side of tea, they lost 5 for 8.
Weerakoon accounted for three of them while Suraj Mohamed, the offspinner, picked up two in one over to keep the pressure on the batsmen. Russel Arnold, Sri Lanka's captain, kept the pair bowling in tandem after tea as they ran through the rest of the batting.
By the close Sri Lanka had slipped to 68 for 3 having lost openers Michael Vandort (3) and Avishka Gunawardena (34) plus Jehan Mubarak for 17.
Ganga and Xavier Marshall, the teenage opener who was completely out of his depth against South Africa and Pakistan, both missed out on centuries as West Indies gave themselves a solid start on a flat surface. However, with a maiden first-class century approaching Marshall attempted to drive Weerakoon across the line and only succeeded in offering a catch to Malintha Gajanayake at forward short leg.
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