West Indies hope new ball brings change of luck after Udara bosses first day

"This is my third chance in Tests, so I thought I want to go big. I made it, so I'm really happy about that," Lahiru Udara says after scoring his first Test century

The second new ball is three overs old, and West Indies are banking on it to make the difference on the second morning of the second and final Test against Sri Lanka after Lahiru Udara's 188 and his 215-run stand with Kamindu Mendis for the third wicket made life tough for the home bowlers on the first day in North Sound.

"[The plan is] definitely to use the conditions," Ravi Rampaul, the West Indies bowling coach, said after the first day's play, which ended with Sri Lanka at a strong 338 for 5 after having lost the first Test by an innings and 217 runs. "I think this morning we bowled well with the new ball, picking up the two wickets [Sri Lanka were 25 for 2 after eight overs], but having said that, now, second-day pitch again using the new ball, so that'll be important to us.

"At least get two wickets with that and get the bowlers [lower-order batters] in. But definitely we need to [focus on] that economy rate, especially. So we need to have a mixture of attacking while defending, especially with that new ball, to not five them a good start."RelatedLahiru Udara 188 carries the fight for Sri Lanka

There's reason to feel confident. After all, Dhananjaya de Silva fell second ball after the ball was changed at the start of the 81st over.

At lunch on the first day, Sri Lanka were 99 for 2. By the end of the second session, they had reached 224 for 2, that's 125 runs without losing a wicket in 23 overs. That's when Udara and Kamindu scored a bulk of their runs.

"We are still struggling in that period just after lunch, going for over 100 runs. I think that's the main area that we fell out there," Rampaul said. "We came back after tea really good, picking up two wickets, but it seems to have something just after lunch, that session that, you know, we keep going for runs and are a little more inconsistent in our lengths."

That wicket of Dhananjaya was Jayden Seales' first of the game and also his 100th in Test cricket, making him the second-fastest to the milestone among West Indies bowlers in terms of balls bowled - Ian Bishop is the fastest.Lahiru Udara scored his first century in his third Test•AFP/Getty Images

"I know Jayden for a long time and I definitely could say he's a hard-worker. He works hard at his craft. He takes advice a lot as well as doing a lot of research on itself, planning well against the opposition," Rampaul said, adding that the wait to get from 95 to 100 had been frustrating for the bowler, who last played a Test in December last year before coming into this series.

"That six [five] wickets seemed a long way away for him," Rampaul said. "It was a little bit [of a] frustrating time, but very happy that he reached the milestone."

The star of the day, though, was Udara. It was his third Test, and he got in only because of a wrist injury to Pathum Nissanka. There had been 19 centuries in a 122-match first-class career, but nothing close to this sort of performance in international cricket before this - Udara had 78 runs in three Test innings with a best of 40.

"It's a great feeling for me - it's my first hundred [in Tests]. This is my third chance in Tests, so I thought I want to go big. I made it, so I'm really happy about that," he said. "I was thinking about playing straight. And whenever they bowl me a bad ball, I'm going to score. That's it."