Close West Indies 327 for 3 (Lara 178*, Sarwan 69, Hooper 52*)
Scorecard

The series may be lost, but Brian Lara keeps on going. He arrived at the crease with West Indies 17 for 2, shared successive stands of 194 with Ramnaresh Sarwan and an unbroken 116 with captain Carl Hooper, and closed undefeated on a glorious 178. And for once Muttiah Muralitharan, who has bagged 42 wickets in his last four Tests, went home empty-handed.

Lara's 17th Test century took his aggregate in this three-match series to 515 runs in five innings at 128.75, and, when he passed 130, he became the sixth West Indian to make 7000 Test runs (the others were Viv Richards, Garry Sobers, Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd and Desmond Haynes).

And it was a century carved from unpromising beginnings. After winning the toss, West Indies lost Chris Gayle for 0 to the fourth ball of the innings as he edged a Chaminda Vaas outswinger to Kumar Sangakkara behind the stumps (2 for 1). And Vaas struck again when the other opener, Daren Ganga, played round his front pad and was trapped leg-before for 6 to make it 17 for 2.

But Lara and Sarwan set about rebuilding the innings with a series of scintillating strokes, although Lara was fortunate to survive on 85, when Sangakkara dropped a chance off part-time offspinner Russel Arnold. Tea was taken at 207 for 2, with Lara already into three figures, but in the first over after the interval, disaster struck. Lara called Sarwan through for a quick single, but Mahela Jayawardene, running in from cover, was even quicker, and his direct hit caught Sarwan out of his ground. Sarwan was out for 69 - that first Test century remains elusive - and West Indies were 211 for 3. Lara sunk to his knees in disappointment.

Hooper ensured there was no collapse, despite some late-afternoon reverse swing from Vaas, and he helped Lara neuter Murali to the extent that his figures by the close were an uncharacteristic 32-4-98-0.

West Indies won't be getting too excited just yet. In the first Test at Galle, where Lara also made 178, they reached 393 for 3 before collapsing to 448 all out - a slump which cost them the match. Lara probably needs to make at least 250 to ensure that doesn't happen again.

Sri Lanka 1 Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), 2 Marvan Atapattu, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Russel Arnold, 6 Hashan Tillekeratne, 7 Thilan Samaraweera, 8 Chaminda Vaas, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Niroshan Bandaratilleke, 11 Nuwan Zoysa.

West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Daren Ganga, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Brian Lara, 5 Carl Hooper (capt), 6 Marlon Samuels, 7 Ridley Jacobs (wk), 8 Dinanath Ramnarine, 9 Mervyn Dillon, 10 Marlon Black, 11 Pedro Collins.

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