Sri Lanka holds West Indies to 203 in 2nd ODI

Colombo, Feb 3 (AP) Lasith Malinga took three wickets tohelp Sri Lanka restrict West Indies to a modest 203 all outbatting first in the second one-day international on Thursday.

West Indies got off to a steady start after being askedto bat first by Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara at theSinhalese Sports Club, but lost both in-form Adrian Barath andChris Gayle with the score on 45.

Sri Lanka''s bowlers took crucial wickets to end severalpromising partnerships, and put the home side in a winningposition.

Barath, who scored 113 for a maiden ODI century in theprevious match, was trapped lbw by seamer Nuwan Kulasekara andoff spinner Muttiah Muralitharan snared Gayle with his firstball, caught at slip by Thilan Samaraweera. Gayle made 28 in30 balls including four boundaries and a six.

Darren Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan shared a valuable49-run stand for the third wicket before Sarwan was run out toa straight drive by Bravo which hit the stumps after touchingthe bowler''s fingers.

Bravo hit three sixes in his 39 runs while hishalf-brother Dwayne Bravo also made 39 to become top scorersfor the West Indies.

Malinga finished with 3-30 while Muralitharan andKulasekara also picked up two wickets each.

The first of the three-match series was washed outearlier this week. (AP) SNK