Sri Lanka defeated West Indies by eight wickets in the second ODI at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo. Upul Tharanga starred for the hosts with an undefeated century. Sri Lanka lead the three match series 1-0 after the first match was washed away by rain.
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first on a slow pitch. Chris Gayle (28) and Adrian Barath (12) added 45 runs for the first wicket but both of them departed on the same score.
Darren Bravo scored 39 runs with three sixes and raised 49 runs for the third wicket with Ramnaresh Sarwan (21). The other notable contributions came from Dwayne Bravo (39) and Carlton Baugh (28*), however the visitors lacked that one decisive partnership to take them to a safe score.
Kieron Pollard (4) failed once again with the bat and the Windies were finally all-out for 203 runs in their allotted 50 overs. For Sri Lanka, Lasith Malinga (3/30) returned impressive figures with good support from Muralitharan (2/42) and Kulasekara (2/42).
Chasing a revised target of 197 from 47 overs, the hosts lost opener Tillakaratne Dilshan (11) in the ninth over, when the batsman edged behind off the bowling of Ravi Rampaul. Tharanga then added 70 runs for the second wicket with Kumara Sangakkara.
Tharanga was the dominant partner with Sangakkara scoring just 20 runs. Sangakkara looked like getting into the groove when his innings ended abruptly, hitting Dwayne Bravo straight to Gayle at short extra cover.
Tharanga brought up his ninth ODI century off 138 balls and remained undefeated on 101 that included seven fours. This is also his first ODI century against West Indies. Mahela Jayawardene remained not out on 48 runs off just 46 balls and the duo added 97 runs for the undefeated third wicket as the hosts reached their target with still 4.3 overs to go.
Tharanga was declared the player of the match for his match-winning 101 runs. The third and final match will be played on Sunday at the same ground.