West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan raises his bat after scoring a century on the fourth day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, yesterday. The West Indies won by six wickets to level the series. - AP

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Ramnaresh Sarwan fashioned a responsible century to guide West Indies to a series-levelling win with a hard-fought victory by six wickets over Sri Lanka on the fourth day of the second Digicel Test at the Queen's Park Oval yesterday.

Vice-captain Sarwan hit 102 and added a priceless 157 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who made an unbeaten 86, as West Indies completed a target of 253 for the loss of four wickets just after 4:00 p.m. on the penultimate day.

West Indies' victory, which followed defeat by 121 runs in the first Test at the Guyana National Stadium, allowed the regional team to escape a first series whitewash in the Caribbean and it left the series at 1-1.

Sarwan and Chanderpaul joined forces at 73 for three in the morning to pull Chris Gayle's team around with a skilled display of batsmanship in which they defied the threat of ace Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

After an enterprising start, Sarwan tightened up to bat solidly for 251 minutes in which he faced 172 balls and stroked 15 fours on the way to his tenth Test century that helped him to win the Man-of-the-Match award.

Man of the Series

With three half-centuries in previous innings, it took his aggregate for the series to 311 runs that earned him the Man-of-the-Series award.

The only disappointment was that he was dismissed with 23 runs required, falling to a catch at silly-point, which gave Muralitharan his only wicket of the innings from 24.3 overs.

Chanderpaul overcome early difficulties to occupy the crease for 207 minutes and face 146 balls. His 46th half-century in Test cricket enabled him to push his aggregate to 7,559 runs, making him West Indies' fourth highest run-scorer at this level.

After West Indies completed their victory well before stumps, the players walked half of the field exchanging handshakes and hugs with scores of fans who had come on to the ground.

West Indies, who started their chase at the start of the day, lost openers Chris Gayle (10) and Sewnarine Chattergoon (11), along with Marlon Samuels (11) in a tense pre-lunch session in which the match was still in the balance.

Gayle fell to an over-ambitious stroke from which the ball skied to short third-man for Tillakeratne Dilshan to take an excellent running catch after moving from point.

One run later, Chattergoon was lbw trying to push forward to a ball that cut in from left-arm fast bowler Chaminda Vaas.

Vaas, who posed Sri Lanka's biggest threat in the early part of the day, also removed Samuels to a diving catch at cover by Malinda Warnapura after a third-wicket stand of 49 with Sarwan.

When rain sent the players off the field for an early lunch at 11:38 p.m., West Indies were 93 for three with several fans still pouring into the Oval.

Light rain during the break delayed the resumption by 20 minutes and Sarwan and Chanderpaul continued to hang in until another shower sent the players off the field half-hour before the rescheduled tea break at 3:10 p.m.

At that point, West Indies were 194 for three and favoured to win the match and complete only the third successful run chase of more than 250 at Queen's Park Oval.

Sweep for four

Sarwan, who was 95 at tea, reached his century with a sweep for four against Muralitharan, but he lasted only a few balls more before he departed to a big ovation from the spectators.

Devon Smith, who replaced Sarwan, struck three hours in an unbeaten 14 to hasten victory which was the West Indies' first Test win in the Caribbean since defeating Pakistan at Kensington Oval in 2005.

The two teams will take a break of three days before returning to the Queen's Park Oval on Thursday for the first of three one-day international matches.

The second is at the same venue two days later and the series will end with a day/night match at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia on April 15.