ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Sri Lan­ka built on their im­pres­sive start by pro­duc­ing an­oth­er ster­ling bat­ting dis­play on the sec­ond day to main­tain their grip over the West In­dies in the sec­ond Test at the end of day two on Sat­ur­day.

Half cen­turies by Son­al Di­nusha and Kusal Mendis helped them con­vert their healthy overnight score of 338 for five in­to a for­mi­da­ble 549 for nine, be­fore de­clar­ing their in­nings short­ly af­ter tea at the Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um.

In their re­ply, the West In­dies lost the wick­et of Bran­don King, but John Camp­bell and a ner­vous look­ing Kavem Hodge guid­ed them to 58 for one at the close of play.

The day once again be­longed to the vis­i­tors, with a 143-run part­ner­ship be­tween Di­nusha and Mendis help­ing them to strength­en an al­ready ro­bust first in­nings po­si­tion.

For the sec­ond straight day, the Windies’ pac­ers were guilty of be­ing ei­ther too short or too wide, and they were made to pay dear­ly.

The pair negat­ed the first hour with­out much alarm, but the part­ner­ship should have been bro­ken when it was worth just 44 and the score 382 for five, but Camp­bell put down a reg­u­la­tion catch to dis­miss Mendis at first slip off Shamar Joseph.

They caried the score to 420 for five at lunch and af­ter the break Di­nusha brought up his half cen­tu­ry in streaky fash­ion by edg­ing Shamar Joseph along the ground through slip.

Mendis wasn’t too far be­hind, and he whipped Alzarri Joseph over the back­ward square leg bound­ary for six to bring up his 50.

The West In­dies fi­nal­ly got a break­through when An­der­son Phillip bowled Mendis for 69 off 115 balls as he tried to scoop him over fine leg, to make the score 476 for six.

When new bats­man Mi­lan Rath­nayake clipped pac­er Justin Greaves in­to the on­side for two runs, it car­ried Sri Lan­ka past 500 runs for the first time in the Caribbean.

By that time Di­nusha was in sight of his maid­en Test cen­tu­ry, which he neared by hit­ting part-time bowler Hodge for two suc­ces­sive bound­aries to move to 92.

But Hodge got his re­venge by hav­ing him caught at cov­er off the next ball to end his 166-ball in­nings and re­duce Sri Lan­ka to 512 for sev­en.

Ros­ton Chase then re­moved Mi­lan Rath­nayake for 15, and Jay­den Seales claimed the wick­et of Isitha Wi­je­sun­dara for 14, be­fore Sri Lan­ka de­clared their in­nings.

Shamar Joseph and Seales both fin­ished with fig­ures of 2-98.

Need­ing to nav­i­gate the fi­nal two hours of play, the home side’s open­ing pair of John Camp­bell and Bran­don King start­ed bright­ly, with King dri­ving Wi­je­sun­dara for two bound­aries in the eighth over to see them move to 32 with­out loss.

But af­ter scor­ing 17 runs off 26 balls, King drove loose­ly at a de­liv­ery from fast bowler Asitha Fer­nan­do and was snapped up at slip by Ka­min­du Mendis.

Hodge, who looked un­set­tled dur­ing his un­beat­en six off 41 balls, should count him­self lucky to be still at the crease af­ter Sri Lan­ka spurned two op­por­tu­ni­ties to dis­miss him.

He had scored a soli­tary run when Di­nusha failed to hold on to a tough chance run­ning in at fine leg off the bowl­ing of Rath­nayake.

And two overs late, Hodge’s thick edge was dropped at first slip by Isu­ru Udara off the same bowler.

It al­lowed the Windies to end the day trail­ing Sri Lan­ka by 491 runs and need­ing a her­culean task from their bat­ters on Sun­day’s third day.

(CMC)

Sum­marised Scores

SRI LAN­KA 549-9 dec’d in 139.3 overs (Lahiru Udara 188, Son­al Di­nusha 92, Ka­min­du Mendis 84, Kusal Mendis 69, Dhanan­jaya de Sil­va 33, Pra­bath Jaya­suriya 17 not out, Mi­lan Rath­nayake 15, Isitha Wi­je­sun­dara 14; Shamar Joseph 2-98, Jay­den Seales 2-98).

WEST IN­DIES 58-1 in 24 overs (John Camp­bell 31 not out, Bran­don King 17).

Po­si­tion: West In­dies trail Sri Lan­ka

by 491 runs with nine wick­ets re­main­ing.

Um­pires: Ah­san Raza, Paul Reif­fel.

TV: Um­pire: Shar­fud­doul­la.

Re­serve Um­pire: Deighton But­ler.

Match Ref­er­ee: Jav­a­gal Sri­nath.