West Indies were made to pay for dropping Dimuth Karunaratne on the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle on Sunday (November 21) as the host’s captain ended the day on 132 not out, with the hosts having the upper hand on 267-3.

The hosts also owe their strong position to Pathum Nissanka and Dhananjaya de Silva, who each scored half-centuries as the West Indies bowlers toiled on a turning pitch with little success.

Roston Chase was the most successful bowler with 2-42 from 17 overs. Shannon Gabriel has so far taken  1-56 on a day when misfortune plagued the West Indies.

Jeremy Solozano, who was making his Test debut, was carted off to hospital after being struck on a helmet when Karunaratne pulled a short ball from Chase that crashed into his helmet.

The mishap would have been avoided had Jermaine Blackwood held onto a catch at slip when in the 12th over of the match, Rahkeem Cornwall induced an edge from the Sri Lankan skipper when he was on 14 with the score at 32.

As it stands, Karunaratne and Nissanka put on 139 in their opening stand that was eventually broken when the latter edged to Cornwall at slip off the bowling of Gabriel. He made 56 from 140 balls and hit seven fours.

Roston Chase then took two wickets in relatively quick succession, dismissing Angelo Matthews and Oshada Fernando who each made three as Sri Lanka slipped to 170-3.

However, Karunaratne and de Silva ensured that the West Indies had no further success on the day with an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 97.