CRICKET:SRI LANKA crushed Zimbabwe by 139 runs to breeze into the quarter-finals, but Tillakaratne Dilshan, architect of the victory, narrowly missed a rare milestone in yesterday's World Cup Group A match.
Dilshan (144) dominated his 282-run partnership, the highest opening stand in a World Cup, with Upul Tharanga (133) at the Pallekele Stadium.
The flamboyant cricketer then returned to wreck Zimbabwe, taking four wickets for just four runs, and could have completed a hat-trick as well had Mahela Jayawardene not dropped a sitter in the slips.
Bowling the 30th over of the Zimbabwean innings, Dilshan trapped Craig Ervine with his third delivery and induced an edge from Greg Lamb’s bat from the next which Jayawardene, diving to his left, smartly pouched.
Dilshan’s next delivery resulted in another edge but the same Jayawardene somehow managed to drop it.
Dilshan, hands on his head, flashed a wry smile before returning to the bowling mark to send down the final ball of the over.
“The hat-trick unfortunately went away, but before that, Mahela took a brilliant catch, so the second wicket really went to him. It can happen,” he said after receiving the man of the match trophy in what he called the best game of his career.
Skipper Kumar Sangakkara did not disagree.
“He was magic. He’s got that magic touch with the bat, with the ball and even on the field,” Sangakkara said after his team buried Zimbabwe under a run mountain.
Chasing 328 for an improbable victory, Zimbabwe got off to a strong start with Brendan Taylor (80) and Regis Chakabva (35) showing scant respect for the Sri Lanka bowlers during their 116-run stand.
But once Muttiah Muralitharan (3 for 34), playing his last one-day international in his home town, separated them by removing Chakabva in the 20th over, Zimbabwe came unstuck, folding for 188 in 39 overs.
Wary of the dew factor, Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura had asked Sri Lanka to bat first and could only watch helplessly as his team-mates retrieved ball after ball from the boundary line before tasting their first success in the 45th over.
Dilshan and Tharanga made merry on a feeble attack, rendered even weaker by Zimbabwe’s decision to hold back left-arm spinner Ray Price.
Zimbabwe have been served well by their time-tested strategy of opening with Price, whose parsimony and accuracy have often stifled batsmen.
Chigumbura opened with the pace duo of Chris Mpofu and Tinashe Panyangara instead, a ploy he was left to rue.
Dilshan and Tharanga went after the pacers, treating them harshly with some effortless boundaries.
Price was soon pressed into service but the Sri Lankan openers had got their eyes in by then and were looking to convert the starts.
The spin trio of Price, Prosper Utseya and Graeme Cremer did succeed in bringing down the sky-rocketing run rate, once again exposing how Zimbabwe missed a trick by ignoring their bowling strength.
It was not mindless slogging either by Dilshan, who hit the lone six of the Sri Lankan innings, or Tharanga, who shared 33 fours between them.
Sri Lanka lost six wickets in the last 5.2 overs but by then they had put a total well beyond their opponents.
Next Up . . . .
March 13th: Canada v New Zealand, Mumbai; Australia v Kenya, Bangalore. March 14th: Pakistan v Zimbabwe, Kandy. March 16th: Australia v Canada, Bangalore.
Yesterday’s Scoreboard
Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe
at Pallekele Stadium, Kandy, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka innings
U Tharanga c Chigumbura b Mpofu 133
T Dilshan c Chigumbura b Utseya 144
T Perera c Chigumbura b Price 3
M Jayawardene c Chakabva b Mpofu 9
K Sangakkara not out 11
A Mathews c Chigumbura b Mpofu 0
C Silva c Panyangara b Mpofu 4
T Samaraweera not out 8
Extras (b 2 lb 3 w 9 nb 1) 15
–––––
Total (for six wickets; 50 overs) 327
Fall of wickets: 1-282, 2-289, 3-296, 4-300, 5-302, 6-308.
Did not bat: N Kulasekara, L Malinga, M Muralitharan.
Bowling: Mpofu 7-0-62-4 (1nb, 2w), Panyangara 6-0-51-0 (2w), Price 9-1-46-1 (2w), Chigumbura 3-0-20-0, Utseya 10-0-50-1 (1w), Cremer 7-0-42-0 (1w), Lamb 8-0-51-0 (1w).
Zimbabwe innings
B Taylor c Jayawardene b Mathews 80
R Chakabva b Muralitharan 35
T Taibu c Sangakkara b Mathews 4
P Utseya st Sangakkara b Dilshan 4
C Ervine lbw b Dilshan 17
E Chigumbura c Perera b M’tharan 6
G Lamb c Jayawardene b Dilshan 0
G Cremer not out 14
R Price c Samaraweera b Perera 11
T Panyangara lbw b Dilshan 0
C Mpofu b Muralitharan 1
Extras (b-2, lb-2, w-12) 16
–––––
Total (all out, 39 overs) 188
Fall of wickets: 1-116, 2-125, 3-132, 4-150, 5-156, 6-156, 7-165, 8-185, 9-185, 10-188.
Bowling: Malinga 8-0-51-0 (7w), Kulasekara 8-0-33-0 (1w), Perera 6-0-33-1, Muralitharan 9-0-34-3, Mathews 5-0-29-2, Dilshan 3-1-4-4.
Sri Lanka won by 139 runs.
THE top four teams from each group qualify for the quarter-finals. In the event of teams finishing on equal points in the group, the team with the most wins will be placed in the higher position. If needed, the further criteria to decide who places higher are: the team with the higher run rate; the team with the higher number of wickets taken per balls bowled; the team which was the winner of the head-to-head match played between them. In the highly unlikely event that teams cannot be separated by the above this will be done by drawing lots.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)