GALLE, Sri Lanka — Opener Tharanga Paranavitana’s dogged innings helped Sri Lanka hold West Indies to a draw in the first test despite the batsman missing out on his third test century today.

Sri Lanka reached tea on the final day Friday on 241-4 — and a second-innings lead of 39 — and rain prevented any play in the final session.

West Indies declared its first innings on 580-9 that included Chris Gayle’s record-breaking knock of 333 and dismissed the hosts for 378, enforcing a follow-on.

After a 102-run opening partnership in Sri Lanka’s follow-on innings, seamer Kemar Roach renewed West Indies’ hopes of victory with two early wickets in the morning session but Paranavitana and Mahela Jayawardene (58) shared 87 runs off 242 balls for the third wicket to frustrate the visitors.

Resuming the final day at 89-0, Sri Lanka lost Tillakaratne Dilshan, bowled by Roach for 54. Dilshan hit five boundaries for his 16th test half-century.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy then caught Kumar Sangakkara on four at gully off Roach, who finished with figures of 2-40.

With the score on 110-2 and Sri Lanka looking vulnerable Jayawardene joined Paranavitana in the rescue act.

Paranavitana was dismissed in the middle session on 95 off 219 balls, caught by captain Sammy at slip off spinner Shane Shillingford. He hit eight boundaries.

Left-arm spinner Brendan Nash took a return catch to dismiss Jayawardene for his second half-century of the match in a 134-ball innings.

But the wickets came too late for the visitors as rain stopped play minutes before the scheduled tea break and persistent rain forced match referee Alan Hurst to call off the game.

Sammy said that he was impressed with his team’s performance despite their inability to win the match and said his team would carry the momentum into the second test starting in Colombo next Tuesday.

“We came here with a winning mindset, we did everything we were supposed to do in this test match. We had a good chance of winning by putting pressure on them,” he said.

“I must commend the bowling unit who stuck in there, we created chances throughout the match. Unfortunately we did not get the 10 wickets we were looking for. All in all a job well done.”

“This result will definitely give our guys confidence going into the second test. This test match is behind us … we have to get the momentum going into the next test,” he said.

Sangakkara criticised his bowlers’ line and length and his batsmen for not converting their strong starts into big scores in the first innings.

“Our attitude in the first two sessions was probably wanting. The lines and lengths we bowled on this track was not good enough for us to put pressure on them. Chris took a lot of advantage from that and batted magnificently,” he said.

“We’ve got to understand this is a good eye-opener for us. It’s an example to us the way they (West Indies) were disciplined in their bowling.”

“Everyone is got a part to play. Three or four good 50s but no one went on to get a big one. Unfortunately we fell about a 100 runs short,” Sangakkara said of his team’s batting.

Gayle was named man of the match after he became only the fourth test cricketer to score two triple-hundreds, joining Australian Don Bradman, Indian Virender Sehwag and Brian Lara of the West Indies.