Sri Lanka defeated Canada by a huge margin of 210 runs in their first match of the ICC World Cup 2011 at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Sooriyawewa, Hambantota. Sri Lanka collected two points by the virtue of the victory and climbed up to the second spot in Group A.
Sri Lanka chose to bat after Kumar Sangakkara won the toss. Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan added 63 runs for the first wicket before a terrible mix-up saw Tharanga (19) walking back to the pavilion. Dilshan registered an exact 50 runs from 59 balls that included eight fours before he was caught in the deep by John Davison off the bowling of Rizwan Cheema.
The dismissal brought two of Sri Lanka’s most experienced batsmen to the middle. Mahela Jayawardene and Sangakkara added 179 runs for the third wicket in just under 23 overs. Sangakkara was unlucky to fall on 92 runs, which he scored off just 87 balls. Sangakkara has not scored an ODI century since June 2008 and he missed out on a chance to register one today. However, Jayawardene went on to register his 13th ODI century. He scored an exact 100 runs off 81 balls with nine fours and a six.
Angelo Matthews (21) and Thilan Samaraweera (18) hit some handy boundaries to take the score to 332/7 in the allotted 50 overs. For Canada, John Davison (2/56) and Harvir Baidwan (2/59) took two wickets apiece as other bowlers found it difficult to contain the Sri Lankan batsmen.
Chasing an imposing 333, Canada got off to a bizarre start losing John Davison, their premier batsmen, for a golden duck. Soon they were reduced to 12/3 by the end of fourth over. Canadian innings never got going after the initial hiccups and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Only Ashish Bagai (22), Rizwan Cheema (37) and Baidwan (16*) reached double digits. Cheema’s 37 came from 35 balls with four fours and two sixes.
For Sri Lanka, Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera took 3/16 and 3/24 respectively while veteran Muttiah Muralitharan took 2/38. Jayawardene was declared the man of the match for his second World Cup hundred.