Highlights - Sri Lanka outscore Windies (UK users only)
Both sides had already progressed to the Super Eights phase but Sri Lanka were fully focused and amassed 192-5.
Sanath Jayasuriya smashed 10 fours and three sixes in 81 off 47 balls, sharing 124 in 12.3 overs with Tillakaratne Dilshan (74)who hit 11 fours and a six.
Ajantha Mendis then took two wickets in an over and Dwayne Bravo's two sixes in a defiant 51 could not prevent defeat.
Some feared that an already dead rubber would be even more routine with the absence of the injured Chris Gayle.
The languid Windies captain, resplendent in lime green sunglasses, gave his side a pre-match rallying cry, or his version of one, but it was the Sri Lankans who looked better equipped, with their big guns firing.
Jayasuriya, approaching his 40th birthday, reminded fans that there was more than one destructive left-handed opener and was at his scintillating best, driving and hooking with panache.
Fidel Edwards was smashed for 17 from his first six deliveries and midway through the third over of the innings Jayasuriya had 27 to his name.
Dilshan was also at his inventive best, and demonstrated the en vogue shovel shot, lifting the ball back over his own head and somehow avoiding injury.
The six powerplay overs resulted in 66 runs and the 100 came up from the penultimate ball of the 10th over.
Jayasuriya's lofted square drive astonishingly went for six as Edwards conceded 20 from his second over.
 | The main thing for this match was to get momentum and I'm happy with the way the guys played Kumar Sangakkara |
It was Lendl Simmons who applied the brakes, introduced for the 13th over and striking with his third ball when Jayasuriya missed with an attempted reverse sweep.
Simmons collected 4-19 from his three overs of medium pace, Dilshan falling in the 18th over when another reverse sweep only found the tall figure of Sulieman Benn at backward point. In the Windies innings, Andre Fletcher smashed a massive six over mid-wicket off the rapid Lasith Malinga but next ball succumbed to a magnificently disguised slower ball that completely deceived him and knocked out the leg-stump.
A disastrous 10-ball over from erratic 21-year-old left-arm seamer Isura Udana actually put the Windies ahead after five overs.
Mendis was savagely reverse swept for four by Simmons, who also seized on a short one to cut four more when Muttiah Muralitharan came into the attack in the next over.
But the spin twins soon made their mark and the opener was sharply caught at first slip by Mahela Jayawardene.
Then in the next over Mendis had Xavier Marshall caught at long-off and the out of form Shivnarine Chanderpaul chopped on to his stumps.
 Bravo hit some typically flamboyant shots to revive the West Indies innings |
There was also an incredible moment on the long-on boundary when Angelo Mathews, realising he could not make a clean catch, parried the ball upwards, then dived to claw it from over the ropes back into the playing area.
That had the match officials scanning the rule books but after a lengthy delay a boundary was not given and the batsmen picked up for the three they had run.
Bravo kept up the momentum in persistent drizzle, and after Murali dropped a top-edge, recorded his fifty with a six, only to depart next ball when another skyer was this time taken.
It was another impressive all-round display from the talented Sri Lankans and skipper Kumar Sangakkara said: "The main thing for this match was to get momentum and I'm happy with the way the guys played.
"Sanath is a genius and he was ably supported by Dilshan. They proved that with a good start you can put up a very defendable total."
Following his fourth Twenty20 international fifty, Jayasuriya said: "In the first few overs if you see the ball well, then you are there. I was positive and played my natural game.
"Dilshan and I like to play our natural game and it was great for our confidence.
"I am enjoying my cricket, but I get great support from my team-mates."
Acting Windies skipper Denesh Ramdin, who revealed that Gayle would return for the team's opening Super Eights match with India at Lord's on Friday, said: "We needed to get a good start but we had to chase the game.
"We'll play hard cricket in the Super Eights and we'll bounce back."
To compound matters for the Windies they were fined for a slow over-rate, Ramdin losing 20% of his match fee and his players deprived of 10%.
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