Sri Lanka trounce Canada to open their World Cup campaign
by CricketArchive staff reporter
DateLine: 21st February 2011
Mahela Jayawardene stitched a majestic century as Sri Lanka hammered Canada in their opening World Cup match.
Jayawardene scored the fastest ton by a Sri Lankan as he took only 80 balls to compile his 100. Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera then led the carnage with the ball as Canada was bundled out for 122 in 36.5 overs.
Jayawardene combined with Sangakkara (92, 87b, 7x4, 1x6) to put on a well paced partnership of 179 to break the spirits of Canadian bowlers as the hosts ran up a massive score in their stipulated 50 overs. Tillakaratne Dilshan
(50, 59b, 8x4) also scored a fifty but it was not as fluent as his previos knocks.
Sri Lanka seems to have lost their way in the final overs as they lost wickets in a bunch in the death overs, but a hard-hitting Angelo Mathews (21, 16b, 3x4) and a silken Thilan Samarwaweera (18 no, 10b, 3x4) ensured they got past
300.
Canada in reply were never in the game as they lost hard-hitting John Davison early. Rizwan Cheema lived up to his reputation as he hammered his way to 37 which included two towering sixes Muralitharan. In the end the Canadian side
found the Lankans too hot to handle.
