Shivnarine Chanderpaul hit a six off the last ball of the game to give West Indies a thrilling win over Sri Lanka in their one-day match on Thursday.

Chasing Sri Lanka's total of 235 for seven, West Indies finished with their last pair of Chanderpaul and Fidel Edwards at the crease needing 10 from the last two balls and up against Sri Lanka's top bowler Chaminda Vaas.

Chanderpaul hit the penultimate ball for a straight four and then crashed a full toss from Vaas over the mid-wicket boundary for a remarkable victory.

"We're happy with the win but we would have been happier if we could have sealed the victory if we could have won the game with more wickets in hand," said West Indies' Dwayne Bravo.

"We knew that Shiv was there and once he got most of the strike we were in with a chance.

"We knew it would have been difficult with two balls to get 10 runs and with a bowler as experienced as Chaminda Vaas you would back the bowling team but Shiv has done it already on different occasions and it goes to show his experience."

Sri Lanka, fielding several younger faces and without key bowlers Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan, had been reeling at 49 for five after Bravo claimed three early wickets before Chamara Kapugedera (95) and Chamara Silva (67) put on a sixth wicket partnership of 159 to turn around the innings.

"We played a lot of good cricket and a lot of bad cricket but to come back from that situation and make 235 showed the character of the guys," said Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss.

West Indies captain Chris Gayle began aggressively hitting hit eight fours in his 52 before he was trapped lbw by debutant spinner Ajantha Mendis with the home side on 109 for two.

But that was the first of three wickets in seven balls -- the in-form Ramnaresh Sarwan was caught behind off Nuwan Kulasekara for 35 and then the badly out-of-form Marlon Samuels went to the same bowler, for a duck, after he was trapped plumb lbw.

Bravo joined Chanderpaul and clubbed two sixes over cover in a forthright knock which put West Indies back on track until he was run out on 36.

When wicket-keeper Patrick Browne (15) and all-rounder Darren Sammy (1) went Chanderpaul was running out of partners with the required run-rate rising.

With 17 runs needed from the last two overs, Suliemann Benn played and missed at the first four balls of Kulasekara's over and then was run out on the fifth ball.

Chanderpaul hit a four off the last ball of that over to leave last man Edwards on strike with 13 runs needed from the final six balls.

Edwards scrambled a single off the second ball to give his partner the strike but Chanderpaul could only manage a single himself.

Another single from Edwards left Chanderpaul needing 10 to win from the last two balls and after his textbook drive for four, Vaas delivered a full toss that was despatched high over Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene at mid-wicket.

The two teams meet again at the Oval on Saturday before concluding the series in St. Lucia on Tuesday.

Reuters