First Test: Sri Lanka set West Indies 375-run target to win

Sri Lanka were bowled out for 476 in their second innings in the final session of the fourth day of the first Test on Wednesday, leaving West Indies a 375-run victory target, AFP reported.

Pathum Nissanka hit a debut century for Sri Lanka while Niroshan Dickwella made 96.

Seamer Kemar Roach and giant off-spinner Rahkeem Cornwall claimed three wickets apiece on a slow, flat wicket at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

Pathum Nissanka joined an exclusive club as just the fourth Sri Lankan to score his century on Test debut as the visitors continued to haul themselves into the ascendancy. AFP reported.

Nissanka, who lost overnight partner Dhananjaya de Silva in the first over of the morning, slowed to a crawl in the second session of the day at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. He finally reached the coveted landmark just before the interval with an edged couple of runs to third man off part-time bowler Jermaine Blackwood.

It was a measure of the West Indies’ desperation for a breakthrough that they resorted to an eighth bowler in Blackwood as Nissanka and Niroshan Dickwella extended their unbroken sixth-wicket partnership to 176.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dickwella was on 81 in pursuit of a maiden Test hundred in his 42nd match.

Nissanka joins Brendon Kuruppu, Romesh Kaluwitharana and Thilan Samaraweera as the only Sri Lankans to score hundreds on Test debut.