Sri Lanka piled on the misery for a tiring West Indies attack Thursday as a Dinesh Chandimal century after a marathon innings of 186 by Dimuth Karunaratne took the hosts to 5-448 at tea on the second day of the first Test.
After reaching his fifth Test century in the morning session, Chandimal picked up pace in the afternoon before finally being dismissed by Jerome Taylor, caught by Jermaine Blackwood for 151 as he drove uppishly to extra cover.
The 25-year-old right-hander hit 16 fours and two sixes during his stay at the crease which lasted 393 balls.
The hardworking Taylor took his second wicket shortly afterwards when the debutant Milinda Siriwardana edged behind to Denesh Ramdin after scoring just one in an eight-ball innings.
But the respite for the West Indies was brief before Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews stepped up the tempo, hitting five fours and a six as he reached the break unbeaten on 48. With him was Kusal Janith Perera on nine.
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Play almost came to a halt 25 minutes into the afternoon session as a bout of drizzle drifted across the Galle International Stadium.
Although it did not force the players off the pitch, it served as a reminder to Sri Lanka of the potential dangers of bad weather halting a possible victory charge unless they pick up the pace.
After resuming after lunch on 3-344, Sri Lanka added 104 runs in the second session of the day.
The only wicket to fall in the morning was that of Karunaratne who fell 14 runs short of what would have been his first Test double century.
He and Chandimal set a new record for any wicket in the Sri Lanka-West Indies series by adding 238, smashing the previous best of 162 set by Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena in November 2001.
