Romesh Kaluwitharana hit a fine 54 for the tourists See full photo gallery

Sri Lanka successfully defended a low score to win the series opener as the West Indies batting order collapsed.

Only Brian Lara, unbeaten on 64, put up any real resistance as the home side were skittled out in 41 overs.

Marlon Samuels hit 29 while Ridley Jacobs, who made 14, was the only other West Indies batsman to reach double figures.

Spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was the chief architect of the West Indies' demise, taking 3-17.

West Indies had a disastrous start to their innings.

They lost four quick wickets to the new ball as Sri Lanka duo Chaminda Vaas and Prabath Nissanka bowled beautifully early on.

Openers Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds were both out for ducks, Ricardo Powell was trapped lbw for five and Ramnaresh Sarwan fell to a blinding catch by Kumar Sangakkara at point.

Lara and Samuels steadied the ship with a stand of 54 but the Windies lost their last five wickets for 40 runs leaving Lara high and dry.

If you win three matches against the world champions, you expect to give a good performance against Sri Lanka Brian Lara

Earlier, the tourists, who went into the game with only one warm-up fixture behind them, were put in by Lara and lost Sanath Jayasuriya to the third ball of the game.

And though Romesh Kaluwitharana (54) and Kumar Dharmasena (40) batted well to get the score past 200, the tourists were all out with eight deliveries of their innings remaining.

Pace bowler Merv Dillon was the pick of the West Indies attack with figures of 3-39.

West Indies went into the game in confident mood after winning the last three games of their seven-match series against Australia.

And they were soon smiling as Dillon had Jayasuriya caught behind.

Kaluwitharana and Atapattu batted sensibly to take the score to 46 but off-spinner Samuels ended that partnership and wickets continued to fall.

Youngster David Bernard accounted for Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene holed out off Hinds.

It was soon 112-5 as Kaluwitharana was beaten by Hinds' throw to wicket-keeper Jacobs and run out. But TM Dilshan and Dharmasena checked the slide with a vital stand of 59.

West Indies: C H Gayle, W W Hinds, B C Lara (Capt), R R Sarwan, M N Samuels, R L Powell, R D Jacobs (Wkt), D E Bernard, V C Drakes, M Dillon, C D Collymore.

Sri Lanka: S T Jayasuriya, M S Atapattu (Capt), K C Sangakkara, D P M D Jayawardene, T M Dilshan, H D P K Dharmasena, R S Kaluwitharana (Wkt), W P U J C Vaas, R A P Nissanka, M Muralitharan, H G D Nayanakantha.