Shivnarine Chanderpaul on way to his 57 in Colombo on Saturday

Colombo: An inexperienced West Indies put up a spirited display to pull off an upset with victory over hosts Sri Lanka, making Sunday’s encounter with India a must-win one for both the teams in their bid to enter the final of the Indian Oil Cup tri-series.

The West Indies, without many of the top players who have boycotted the tour over a contract dispute with their board, put up a competitive 226 for seven before bowling out the Lankans for 193 with three overs to spare at the Premadasa Stadium.

It was the first victory on the tour for the second string side, made up of players quickly drafted from an A team after the senior players including Brian Lara refused to come on board.

Sri Lanka have ensured their berth in the final before the match but India, who have beaten the West Indies in their earlier encounter but lost to Sri Lanka twice, must defeat the Caribbeans to enter the final.

The West Indies win, their first after losing 11 successive games, was the handiwork of bowlers and fielders who defended a reasonable total.

It gives the Caribbeans their first win from three games in the competition, the same as Indians, and Monday’s encounter between the two, the last league game, would decide who gets the chance to meet Sri Lanka in final.

There was no hint of such a collapse when Sri Lanka moved to 64 for one in the 15th over but then three wickets for an addition of only nine runs turned the game on its head.

Kumar Sangakkara fell to Darren Powell for seven and then Dwayne Smith struck twice off successive balls to give the visitors scent of a rare win.

Smith cleaned up opener Upul Tharanga (25) and then won a leg before shout against Tillekeratne Dilshan (0) to leave the hosts gasping.

Off-spinner Omari Banks then provided with couple of strikes in mid-stage when he dismissed Mahela Jayawardene (22) and Upul Chandana (4) and Sri Lanka were reeling at 107 for six in the 30th over.

The odds began to get stacked against Sri Lanka, even though Russell Arnold (59) and Ferveez Mahroof (20) fought on gamely, putting 33 runs for the seventh wicket before the latter was caught in the slips off Tino Best.

The West Indies then chipped in with two more wickets of Nuwan Zoysa (8) and Muttiah Muralidharan (1) to leave the hosts with the tall target of scoring 55 runs from 43 balls.

Earlier, the West Indian innings was built around two half centuries from their captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul (57 off 79 balls) and Sylvester Joseph (58 off 92 balls) even though the late flourish from the rest of the batsmen didn’t arrive.

No less than four West Indian batsmen, Xavier Marshall (8), Joseph (58), Omari Banks (33) and Ricardo Powell (8) were run out, but it was obvious that the visitors have learnt a few lessons from this taxing tour.