Arnos Vale (St Vincent), June 12: The West Indies salvaged some of their pride with a six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the rain-hit third and final one-day international here yesterday. The West Indies, chasing a revised target for 160 off 42 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis system after the second interruption due to rain, won with 31 balls to spare.
Free-stroking Marlon Samuels remained unbeaten with a 38-ball 45, which included three sixes and a four.
The win also prevented Sri Lanka from a making a clean sweep after winning the back-to-back matches at Bridgetown in Barbados.
This was not the first time that the West Indies had won a `dead` match. They completed a hat-trick of victories after losing the first four games of a seven-match series against World Cup champions Australia.
"We still needed to win this game, psychologically," said West Indies captain Brian Lara.
"It was good to see young boys performing well ahead of the test series. I was very impressed with fast bowler (Jerome) Taylor."
The teams will now play two test matches, the first starting at St Lucia on June 20.
The West Indies owed their consolation win to their inexperienced bowlers, especially debutant Taylor and off-spinner Ryan Hurley who kept the Sri Lankan batsmen silent during their tidy spells.
Mahela Jayawardene top-scored with 51 in Sri Lanka`s modest total of 191 after his team had been put in to bat. He, however, could never dominate the West Indies attack during his 18th half-century. Bureau Report