Sri Lankan openers stage an outstanding performance

Click above to watch LIVE match

 

Sri Lanka's openers put on their fourth 50-plus partnership of this World Cup to build a strong platform in pursuit of a victory that will make their place in the quarterfinals official. Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan attacked from the outset, scoring half-centuries that erased whatever advantage Elton Chigumbura hoped to gain by bowling first in Pallekele.

Chris Mpofu made a spectacular but unsuccessful appeal after striking Tharanga on the pad with the first ball of the game, and that was the end of Zimbabwe's upper hand. Tharanga threaded a square drive through point a few balls later and Sri Lanka were away. For the first time in the tournament Chigumbura did not use Ray Price with the brand new ball and gave the second over to Tinashe Panyangara. It was a costly decision as Dilshan ran amok, driving the full balls, and cutting and pulling the short ones to take 18 runs off the over.

There was no let-up in Sri Lanka's momentum during the mandatory Powerplay. Dilshan and Tharanga slashed through point, pulled through square and then drove when the length was too full, punishing everyone who bowled at them. When Price was brought on in the fifth over, Dilshan skipped down and drove him inside out through cover.

Sri Lanka went past 50 in 6.3 overs and when Mpofu returned for a second spell in the 10th, Tharanga welcomed him with two pulls and a chip over mid-off, all to the boundary. Since the openers were playing a shot a minute there were some mis-hits as well but nothing went close to hand or the stumps.

After conceding 77 off the first ten, Chigumbura postponed the bowling Powerplay by one over, hoping to make a breakthrough, but to no avail. Not until the 12th and 13th over was there spin from both ends and then Price bowled the innings' first maiden. The run-rate slowed as Dilshan approached his half-century, getting there off 43 balls, and Sri Lanka got to 100 off 16.3 overs. The spin trio of Price, Prosper Utseya and Graeme Cremer began to exercise more control over the run-rate, which dipped below six for the first time in the 19th, but they failed to take a wicket.

Tharanga, who got to his fifty off 67 balls, and Dilshan shifted to a lower gear and focused on accumulation, building a launch pad for a fierce assault later in the innings.