Lasith Embuldiya was able to break the resistance of the Windies lower order as he slid past the tail after breaking through two crucial partnerships involving Nkrumah Bonner, who eventually remained unbeaten on 68 off 20 balls.
West Indies started positively from their overnight score of 52-6 and both Bonner and his partners at the other end, Joshua Da Silva played some beautiful shots indeed 66 runs to their existing 34 run partnership to complete a 100 run partnership for the seventh wicket, taking West Indies from 18-6 to 118.
However, Lasith Embulduniya broke through just ahead of the Lunch and git Da Silva out for 54 off 129 balls. Bonner then tried to stick together yet another partnership with Rahkeem Cornwall. The two added 31 runs for the eighth wicket but most importantly played out 14 overs and were threatening to take the game to a draw especially with the clouds around the stadium darkening with each passing ball.
But even under threat of rain and the dogged approach by Cornwall and Bonner, the left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama, who hadn’t picked nay wicket in the fourth innings till then, got Cornwall caught by Suranga Lakmal and thus broke the partnership. Post that, Embulduniya picked the last two wickets of Jomel Warrican and Shanon Gabriel to get West Indies all out for 160.
Courtesy of the last two wickets Embulduniya completed his fourth five-wicket haul in Test cricket. The 25-year-old also equalled Ajanatha Mendis’ record for the second-fastest 50 wickets in test cricket for a Sri Lankan bowler as he reached the milestone in this Test, only his 12th of the career. Dilruwan Perera is the fastest Sri Lankan to reach 50 wickets as he reached the milestone in 11 Tests.
The second Test between the two nations will begin on November 29 at the same venue. Sri Lanka would look to do a clean sweep and strengthen their position in the World Test Championship 2021-23.