Marlon Samuels ushered the Windies home

West Indies avoided a 3-0 series whitewash as they won the rain-affected third and final one-day international against Sri Lanka.

The hosts, chasing a revised target of 160 off 42 overs after the second interruption due to rain, won with 31 balls and six wickets in hand.

Captain Brian Lara said he hoped his team would use the consolation success as a springboard to more consistent results.

"Hopefully, we'll get our act together and understand that we can't afford to play cricket after everything's finished," Lara said.

"We need to play cricket from the beginning."

Lara made only 14 after top-scoring in the first two matches, while Marlon Samuels hit an unbeaten 45 to guide his team home.

All the West Indies' batsmen reached double figures, while no Sri Lankan bowler was able to take more than one wicket.

Earlier Lara won the toss and sent the visiting Sri Lankans in to bat.

Solid

They slumped to 64-4 early on and never recovered despite a solid 51 from Mahela Jayawardene in the middle-order.

Corey Collymore returned 3-28 in a fine display of fast bowling. He was ably backed up by the rookie duo of Jerome Taylor and Darren Powell.

Marvan Atapattu's side got off to a bad start when Sanath Jayasuriya fell to a direct hit from Samuels in the third over.

Romesh Kaluwitharana was soon caught by Lara off Collymore, whose opening spell of four overs conceded just nine runs.

The vital wicket followed when Taylor struck to claim the prized scalp of Atapattu, fooling the Sri Lanka skipper with a slower ball that was spooned to Ryan Hurley at mid-off.

Upul Chandana (33) was also dismissed by Taylor.

Atapattu said the defeat was a disappointment.

"We wanted to wrap up [the series] on a good note, but things didn't go according to plan."

West Indies: W W Hinds, C H Gayle, B C Lara (Capt), R R Sarwan M N Samuels, R L Powell, R D Jacobs (Wkt), R O Hurley, D B Powell J E Taylor, C D Collymore.