Gayle continues dominance

Galle - Opener Chris Gayle reached an unbeaten 255 as the West Indies extended their dominance of the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka during Tuesday's opening session, reaching 429-3 at lunch on day two.

Gayle was more sedate than his aggressive knock on Monday, but did set a new record for the highest score by a batsman in all Tests between these two nations, passing Brian Lara's 221.

Resuming on 362-2, the visitors lost Shivnarine Chanderpaul (32) who tried to cut offspinner Suraj Randiv but was caught by Mahela Jayawardene at slip.

Chanderpaul became only the second West Indies batsman to pass more than 9 000 Test runs along with Lara.

Brendan Nash was batting on 16 at the break, and Randiv had the best bowling figures for the hosts with 2-156.