"Sri Lanka (2pts) beat Canada by 210 runs"
| Sri Lanka | 332-7 (50 ovs) |
| Canada | 122 (36.5 ovs) |
Match Report
Mahela Jayawardene's century helped Sri Lanka on the way to an easy 210-run victory over Canada in their opening World Cup Group A match.
Batting first, the Lions amassed 332 for seven in 50 overs thanks to Jayawardene's ton and a 179-run third-wicket stand he shared with skipper Kumar Sangakkara (92).
In reply, Canada slumped to 53 for five and Rizwan Cheema's quickfire 37 only served to delay the inevitable as Thisara Perera and Nuwan Kulasekara took three wickets each to bowl their opponents out for 122 with 13 overs to spare.
Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan put on 63 for the opening wicket before a horrible miscommunication left Tharanga run out for 19.
Dilshan notched his fifty in 58 deliveries but Cheema forced a mistimed drive from the right-hander to have him caught by John Davison at deep cover.
Jayawardene steadied the innings alongside Sangakkara and reached his own 50 with a boundary off Davison.
The pair frustrated Canada's bowlers with their patient strokeplay while Sangakkara too crossed the fifty mark with a boundary that took the partnership past 100.
The Sri Lankan skipper fell eight short of his 100 in the 42nd over, caught and bowled tamely off Davison before Jayawardene reached his hundred with a single.
Te too was showing signs of fatigue and a hopeful sweep off Davison only found Balaji Rao at short fine-leg.
Canada's start was in stark contrast to Sri Lanka's as Davison (nought), Ruvindu Gunasekara (one) and Zubin Surkari departed in successive overs with just 12 on the board, Perera and Kulasekara doing the damage between them.
Canada's woes were compounded when Jimmy Hansra (nine) was deceived by Thillan Samaraweera's flighted delivery to be stumped, while captain Ashish Bagai - who had survived two UDRS reversals - became Perera's third victim caught behind for 22.
Cheema showed flashes of brilliance but Kulasekara snapped up the wickets of Tyson Gordon (four) and Khurram Chohan's (four), both caught behind.
Cheema worked hard for his 37 off 35 balls, even hitting Muralitharan for two sixes, but the spinner finally had his man caught off a wild slog by Jayawardene, with the last two wickets then falling for just 19 runs added.
No comments:
Post a Comment