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West Indies 134-2 at stumps against Sri Lanka

Darren Bravo hit an unbeaten 63 Wednesday and added 115 runs for the second wicket with Devon Smith as West Indies recovered to post 134-2 against Sri Lanka in the third and final test.

The tourists lost Chris Gayle to the first ball of the match, leaving the 21-year old Bravo to face the second ball of the West Indian innings.

But Bravo hit his third half-century of the series to help West Indies recover on a day hit by rain and bad light at the new 30,000 cricket stadium near the central city of Kandy.

A cousin of former West Indian great Brian Lara, Bravo said fans may expect a lot from him after an impressive start.

“I have just started my international career and there will be a lot of expectations,” Bravo said. “We all know what Brian has done in world cricket. I can do what I can do and it’s up to the Lord above and without him nothing is possible.

“Growing up I always looked at Brian and the way he bats. No doubt people sort of try to compare me as I have a similar batting style. Actually that’s my way of batting my natural way and it’s very nice to go there and perform.”.

Having missed two chances to score a century in his previous two tests, Bravo said that he is once again well set to go for a maiden test century.

Dropped on 56, Bravo hit nine boundaries in his 111-ball innings. Smith, who was brought into the side after Adrian Barath fell ill, was dismissed for 55 when Ajantha Mendis trapped him leg before wicket.

By dismissing Gayle, Sri Lanka bowler Suranga Lakmal became the third bowler to take a wicket with the first ball bowled in a test match at a new venue, joining Kapil Dev of India and Imran Khan of Pakistan.

Nuwan Kulasekara, who played the previous test in Colombo, was left out by Sri Lanka due to a side strain and his place went to medium pacer Dilhara Fernando, who was unlucky to see two catches put down off his bowling.

Sri Lanka’s captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and opted to bowl first and only 40 overs of the scheduled 90 were possible on the day as morning showers held up play for more than one and half hours while bad light suspended play after 8.3 overs of the afternoon session.

Play was called off early due to bad light and will resume 15 minutes before schedule on Thursday.

“We had a good start, but we expected the wicket to do a lot and it didn’t do as much as we expected,” Sri Lanka’s bowling coach Champaka Ramanayaka said.

The three-match series is level at 0-0 after the first two tests were weather-affected.