Upul Tharanga's century proves decisive for Sri Lanka

by Shris Dhambarage

MOHALI, Saturday - Left hand opener Upul Tharanga hammered his fifth one day international century as Sri Lanka launched their campaign for the International Cricket Council Mini World Cup with an emphatic 37 runs victory over Bangladesh in their qualifying round opening fixture played at the Punjab Cricket Association grounds in Mohali here on Saturday.

Tharanga smashed a magnificent 105 from 122 deliveries to help the Lankans reach a massive 302 for 8 and Bangladesh then responded with 265 for 9 from their 50 overs. Saqibul Hassen making his one day international debut hit a top score of 67 not out.

Bangladesh never looked like making a match of it and were completely out of the contest after they had slumped to 124 for 4 at the half way stage of the innings. Aftab Ahmed hit an aggressive 33 from 31 balls in the top order but the rest of the batting just could not maintain the required run rate against some quality bowling.

Paceman Chaminda Vaas bowled an impressive opening spell and Dilhara Fernando always troubled the batsmen with his sheer pace. But the real damage was done by the third seamer Farveez Maharoof who came into the limelight while picking up two wickets in one over.

Earlier Upul Tharanga cut loose after a quiet start and went on to make a splendid 105 from 122 balls and with the aid of one six and eleven fours. He was also associated in three half century partnerships which was a feature in the Sri Lankan innings. In fact the Sri Lankan innings was all about building up partnerships as they set about their task in a professional manner.

Tharanga opened out after the top order had laid the foundation with some delightful shots before being dismissed in the 45th over. Sri Lanka who were put into bat planned their innings quite beautifully and always maintained a healthy run rate with Upul Tharanga leading the way. The elegant left hander raced to his half century in 62 balls with seven fours and one six.

Tharanga then decided to play the supporting role with the more experienced Kumar Sangakkara and skipper Mahela Jayawardena deciding to take over the bowling with some big hitting. In fact Jayawardena made a quick fire 35 and Sangakkara made 22 from 23 deliveries.

The most important fact was that the Lankans played aggressively and they made their intentions clear from the start. Sanath Jayasuriya of course fell in the 13th over after an opening stand of 67 runs. Skipper Jayawardena joined Tharanga and the pair simply took the bowling apart with another 63 run stand for the second wicket.

Sangakkara and Tharanga continued in the same manner with the pair adding a further 63 runs for the third wicket. Sangakkara of course departed in the 33rd over when he was well set and really truing to accelerate the scoring rate. But Marvan Atapattu making a comeback after a long lay off made his intentions clear with a solid 40 from 41 deliveries.

The Sri Lankan innings lost its momentum somewhat after the quick dismissal of Atapattu, Maharoof and Chaminda Vaas. However Tillekeratne Dilshan played another splendid innings of 26 not out from 22 balls and made certain that Sri Lanka got pass the three hundred run mark.

SRI LANKA
Upul Tharanga b Mortaza 		105
Sanath Jayasuriya lbw b Rasel 		 31
Mahela Jayawardene c Ahmed b Razzak 	 35
Kumar Sangakkara c Mortaza b Rafique 	 22
Marvan Atapattu c Reza b Rasel 		 40
Tillakaratne Dilshan not out 		 26
Farveez Maharoof run out 		  0
Chaminda Vaas c Reza b Razzak		  4
Muttiah Muralitharan run out 		 11
Lasith Malinga not out 			  7
EXTRAS (1B, 4LB, 16W) 			 21
TOTAL (for eight wickets) 		302
Overs: 50.
FALL OF WICKETS : 1-67, 2-130, 3-193, 4-244, 5-260, 6-262, 7-273,
8-295.
BOWLING: Mashrafe Mortaza 10-0-60-1 (5w), Syed Rasel 10-0-65-2
(2w), Farhad Reza 8-0-63-0 (2w), Abdur Razzak 10-0-49-2 (6w),
Mohammad Rafique 10-0-37-1, Saqibul Hasan 2-0-23-0 (1w)

BANGLADESH
Shahriar Nafees c Sangakkara b Vaas 	 5
Mohammad Ashraful c Sangakkara
 b Fernando 				18
Aftab Ahmed c Sangakkara b Maharoof 	33
Saqibul Hasan not out 			67
Habibul Bashar c Jayawardene b Maharoof	 0
Farhad Reza st Sangakkara
 b Muralitharan				34
Khaled Mashud run out 			 8
Mohammad Rafique c Vaas b Jayasuriya 	12
Mashrafe Mortaza b Vaas 		30
Abdur Razzak b Maharoof 		21
Syed Rasel not out 			 1
EXTRAS (4B, 3LB, 21W, 8NB) 		36
TOTAL (for nine wickets) 		265
Overs: 50.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-22, 2-55, 3-78, 4-78, 5-141, 6-155, 7-177,
8-226, 9-264.
BOWLING: Chaminda Vaas 10-2-46-2 (7w), Lasith Malinga 10-1-35-0
(4w), Dilhara Fernando 5-0-39-1 (6nb 7w), Farveez Maharoof 7-0-47-3,
Muttiah Muralitharan 10-0-45-1 (2nb 2w), Sanath Jayasuriya 8-0-46-1
(1w).