CHRISTOPHER Gayle and Sunil Narine combined, with telling effect to help the West Indies to a straight-forward six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in yesterday’s opening match of the Celkon Mobile One-Day International (ODI) series at Sabina Park.

Scores: Sri Lanka 208 (48.3 overs); West Indies 209-4 (37.5 overs).

Gayle needed only 100 balls to thunder nine fours and seven sixes in his thrilling, man-of-thematch knock of 109 that ensured the West Indies overhauled Sri Lanka’s total of 208 with a whopping 73 balls remaining — a margin which meant the home team also garnered a bonus point.

In the process, the 33-year-old left-hander, who drove and pulled with typical power and timing, chalked up his 21st ODI hundred and his first since reaching triple figures against New Zealand at the same venue last year.

Understandably pleased with his innings, Gayle credited the bowling effort for setting up the win ahead of tomorrow’s crucial clash against ICC 50-overs World Cup champions India.

“It’s been a while… it’s good to get it (the century) in front of my home crowd. We restricted Sri Lanka well, the bowlers really did well. We got a good start batting, and that was vital for us,” Gayle said.

On a pitch which proved a bit on the slow side, particularly in the early stages, Gayle had the decent sized crowd fully entertained during his onslaught which lasted two hours and nine minutes.

The Jamaican was eventually caught by Dinesh Chandimal inside the 30-metre circle when he skied a full pitched delivery from spinner Ajantha Mendis with the West Indies coasting at 181-1.

Despite losing the wickets of Johnson Charles (29), Darren Bravo (27), Kieron Pollard (0), the team comfortably reached 209-4 to seal the win.

Pollard could count himself unlucky after he was given out leg before wicket, though replays showed the impact was outside off-stump with him playing a shot, which means the decision should have gone in his favour.

Bravo also suffered from a bit of misfortune after he was run out due to a mix-up between him and Marlon Samuels.

Samuels, on 15, and the regional team’s ODI captain Dwayne Bravo, who made eight, were the undefeated batsmen.

Earlier, West Indies won the toss and sent the visitors to bat under mostly sunny conditions that became overcast as the day progressed.

The opening pair of Upul Tharanga and Jayawardene put on a 62-run stand before the former edged a delivery from West Indies skipper Dwayne Bravo through to wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.

West Indies spinner Sunil Narine, who was arguably as influential as Gayle, got some turn from the surface and craftily varied his pace to trouble the Sri Lankan batsmen thereafter.

Narine, 25, dented the Sri Lankans’ hopes when he dismissed the premier batting pair of Mahela Jayawardene, who hit a polished run-a-ball 52, and Kumar Sangakkara, who made 17.

The 36-year-old Jayawardene, whose pleasurable innings was headlined by a pushed cover drive off pacer Kemar Roach that raced to the fence for four, was first to go at 85-2 when Narine’s flighted delivery clipped his bat and pad and looped to Ramdin.

The left-handed Sangakkara followed at 104-3 when he mistimed a drive and ended up chipping a chance into Pollard’s lap at cover.

Still, the visitors pushed on to 140-3 before steady bowling and disciplined fielding undermined their charge, as pacer Ravi Rampaul returned well in the latter stages of the innings to finish with 3-38.

The 26-year-old Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, dropped at slip by Gayle when on seven, was left unbeaten with a level-headed 55 off 77 balls on a pitch he described as “two-paced”.

The stark reality was that a score of 208, under the conditions, was not stiff enough a challenge, and the Sri Lankan bowling and fielding were nowhere good enough to rein in the rampaging Gayle.