Close Sri Lanka (253 for 8; Jayasuriya 64, Jayawardene 63) beat West Indies (212 for 7; Gayle 60, Ganga 50; Dharmasena 3-44) by 34 runs (D/L method)
scorecard

Sri Lanka cruised to victory in the LG Abans final after their batsmen had provided West Indies with a tough total to chase. Kumar Dharmasena was the hero with the ball, taking 3 for 44, but it was really Sri Lanka's imposing innings of 253 that did for the tourists.

The revised target of 247 off 47 overs, thanks to a rain delay, proved too much for West Indies. An entertaining opening stand of 111 between Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga gave them some hope. But the pressure of trying to maintain the required run rate of above five an over finally told when Ganga embarked on a suicidal skip down the track to Dharmasena. Ganga missed the ball by a mile and was clean bowled for 50 (111 for 1).

Thereafter the innings fell apart. Gayle drove at a wideish ball from Jayasuriya and edged it to Upul Chandana at backward point for a well-played 60 (117 for 2). The Sri Lankan captain struck again in his next over, having Ramnaresh Sarwan caught behind for 5 (124 for 3). Marlon Samuels was then run out by Chaminda Vaas (147 for 4).

It wasn't long before Muttiah Muralitharan got in on the act. Ricardo Powell swept him, but the ball flew to midwicket where Chandana took an excellent catch (150 for 5).

Captain Carl Hooper knew the game was up, but he batted with cavalier abandon, scoring his 34 at a run a ball. It was futile, but fun. He was eventually undone by a full toss from Dharmasena. Hooper thumped it high over midwicket and Atapattu took the catch just inside the ropes (181 for 6).

Ridley Jacobs followed his skipper's example, clumping and clattering his way to an 18-ball 21 before he was stumped by Sangakkara off Dharmasena (203 for 7).

Sri Lanka had earlier piled on 253 off their 50 overs, thanks to two sparkling innings from Sanath Jayasuriya (64) and Mahela Jayawardene (63)

Jayawardene provided the backbone of the innings, punishing the bad balls and stealing singles almost at will. He perished when he cut Pedro Collins down to third man and, coming back for the second run, was beaten by a strong, flat throw from Ramnaresh Sarwan. Ridley Jacobs whipped off the bails with Jayawardene well short of his crease (229 for 6).

Both Chaminda Vaas and Upul Chandana also fell to run-outs as the lower order sought quick runs in the closing overs. Hooper hit the stumps to dismiss Vaas for 1 (232 for 7) and Collymore repeated the trick in the next over to claim Chandana for 5 (232 for 8).

The West Indies bowlers – and indeed fielders - had fought back well after Sri Lanka had seemed in total command after an aggressive display from Jayasuriya. His 85-ball 64 had contained nine fours and a six as he blasted the bowling to all parts, square-cutting with abandon.

He fell to his opposite number, Hooper, when he went for one pull too many and lobbed the ball to mid on where Hinds dived forward to take the catch (114 for 2). Hooper had also taken the first wicket to fall, snaffling an easy return catch off a leading edge to dismiss Avishka Gunawardene (53 for 1).

Jayasuriya's wicket enabled Hooper to exercise some form of control. He brought on Chris Gayle who restored some sanity to proceedings, and forced Sri Lanka into an error. Jayawardene played the ball into the off side and called Marvan Atapattu through for the single. But Atapattu was slow out of the blocks and was beaten by a direct hit from the swooping Ryan Hinds (154 for 3)

As so often, one wicket brought another when, in the next over, Pedro Collins bowled the new batsman Russel Arnold for a duck. Arnold went back to a seaming delivery and inside-edged it on to his off stump (155 for 4)

Jayawardene and Sangakkara put on 58 together before West Indies struck again. Sangakkara came dancing down the track to Darryl Brown going for the big hit, but skewed the ball to deep square leg where Marlon Samuels took a comfortable catch. Sangakkara had scored a rather subdued 23, without striking any boundaries (213 for 5). It was some consolation for Brown whose ten overs cost him 72 runs.

Sri Lanka 1 Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), 2 Marvan Atapattu, 3 Avishka Gunawardene, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Russel Arnold, 6 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 7 Chaminda Vaas, 8 Kumar Dharmasena, 9 Upul Chandana, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Nuwan Zoysa.

West Indies 1 Daren Ganga, 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan4 Carl Hooper (capt), 5 Marlon Samuels, 6 Ridley Jacobs, 7 Corey Collymore, 8 Pedro Collins, 9 Ricardo Powell, 10 Darryl Brown, 11 Ryan Hinds.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd