Lanka ride on Tharanga's third one-day hundred

LONDON, June 17 - Upul Tharanga once again stamped his class as a rising Sri Lankan star of the future when he scored his third one-day century to guide Sri Lanka to a total of 257-9 off 50 overs in the first one-day international against England played at Lord's here today.

Tharanga virtually carried the Sri Lankan innings on his young shoulder scoring 120 off 156 balls before he was ninth out at 248 in the penultimate over. He struck 14 fours and figured in a second wicket stand of 99 off 112 balls with his captain Mahela Jayawardene who was the second highest scorer of the innings with 24.

Tharanga displayed a wide range of shots during his 220-minute stay at the wicket and it would have been pleasing for him to get a hundred at the home of cricket.

Not many Sri Lankans have made a one-day century at Lord's, the most recent being Marvan Atapattu who scored 132 not out against England in the Emirates trophy final in 1998.

Former Sri Lanka batsman Aravinda de Silva who is now a commentator with Sky TV made a memorable hundred for Kent against Lancashire in the Benson and Hedges Cup final here in 1995. That innings is still being revered and spoken of by those who were lucky enough to have witnessed it.

Sri Lanka's total would have been much smaller if the England bowlers had not been so generous. They conceded 23 no-balls and four wides, which boosted the extras to a record 42. It was the highest number of extras conceded by England in any one-day internationals beating the 41 they allowed against Sri Lanka at Delhi in 1989-90.

Sri Lanka's batting apart from Tharanga was rather disappointing with several of the batsmen getting starts and throwing away their wickets rather needlessly.

England made a surprise decision to insert Sri Lanka first on a hard but flat surface after winning the toss. Sri Lanka lost Sanath Jayasuriya for 11 in the fifth over when he slashed at a wide ball from Harmison and offered an easy catch to Jones behind the wicket.

Jayawardene promoting himself to no. 3 ahead of Sangakkara batted with purpose pushing the score along steadily in partnership with Tharanga before Collingwood had him caught at mid-off. Despite his dismissal Sri Lanka looked in good shape to get near the 300-run mark when they were at one stage 153-2 in the 28th over. But Sangakkara ran himself our rather needlessly for 15 when he charged down the track failing to beat Collingwood's return to Mahmood.

The middle order could not continue the momentum with Dilshan (13), Arnold (8) and Kapugedera (1) all going cheaply. Sri Lanka lost six wickets for 70 runs as England despite some poor fielding were able to pull back and keep the total within a range they could chase after.

Harmison back in the side from injury was England's best bowler finishing with three wickets, but it was the slow medium-pace bowling of Collingwood in the middle overs that rattled the Lankan batting.

SRI LANKA                              
U. Tharanga c D. b Mahmood		120
S. Jayasuriya c G. Jones b Harmison    	 11
M. Jayawardene c Strauss b Collingwood	 24
K. Sangakkara run out			 15
T. Dilshan c Collingwood  b Harmison   	 13
R. Arnold c G. Jones b Collingwood    	  8
C. Kapugedera c Pietersen b Plunkett  	  1
C. Vaas c Strauss  b Harmison       	 10
L. Malinga b Bresnan                  	  3
D. Fernando not out                   	 10
M. Muralitharan not out               	  0
EXTRAS (B-2, LB-13, NB-4, W-23)      	 42	
TOTAL (for 9 wickets, 50 overs)  	257
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-25, 2-124, 3-153, 4-187, 
5-204, 6-207, 7-227, 8-236, 9-248
BOWLING: S. Harmison 10-0-52-3 (w-8), L. Plunkett 7-0-32-1 (w-6),
 T. Bresnan 9-1-44-1 (nb-1 w-5), S. Mahmood 9-0-57-1 (nb-3 w-2), 
P. Collingwood  10-1-29-2, J. Dalrymple 5-0-28-0 (w-1)        

****

Flash

Sri lanka won by 20 runs.