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Classy Jayawardene spurs S/Lanka to win
Zimbabwe lose rain-hit match by 14 runs on D/L system
By Sean Devers
The slam-bang 20/20 cricket seems well suited for the savage butcher at work but yesterday at Providence another sell-out crowd witnessed the clinical surgeon destroy the opposition with magnificent elegance.
Mahela Jayawardene proved that vicious slogs and improvised shots are not the only ingredients for a sumptuous 20/20 feast and his repertoire of immaculate ‘cricket’ shots provided the purists with a wonderful exhibition of batsmanship as he became only the fourth batsman to register a 20/20 International century.
The Sri Lankan right-hander followed up his 81 in a losing effort in his team’s first round match against New Zealand with a fabulous 64-ball 100 decorated with 10 fours and 4 sixes as Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe by 14 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis system.
Electing to bat on a slow track in sunny conditions, Sri Lanka, the losing finalist last year, reached 173-7 off 20 overs although it was almost a one-man show by the gifted Jayawardene as only Thissara Perera (23) and Chamara Kapugedera (13) of the other batsmen reached double figures.
Zimbabwe, who beat Australia and defending champions Pakistan in their warm-up games, reached 29-1 off 5 overs chasing a revised target of 104 from 11 overs after rain intervened with them on 4 without loss after one over in their reply.
The 27-year-old Jayawardene who averages 53.96 from 110 Test matches caressed the ball sweetly but still scored at a strike rate of 156 and took 14 from the day’s opening over bowled by pacer Chris Mpofu to set the stage for what at one time appeared a 200 plus Sri Lanka total.
Sri Lanka hold the world record for highest total in this format and at 80-2 in the 8th over they seemed capable of getting close to the 260-6 they scored against Kenya in the inaugural 20/20 World Cup in 2007 in South Africa.
Jayawardene’s job is to bat through the innings and by the time he lofted left-arm spinner Ray Price to long-on in the penultimate over, he had done his job well and joined Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina as the only players with three-figure scores in this format at the International level.
While Jayawardene’s innings was gracefully constructed the Sri Lanka think-tank will have to examine the support staff as the Asians lost their way in the middle overs.
The fact that their leading spinner Muttiah Muralidaran has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to a groin injury is a dent to their bowling as they hope to head into the next round in Barbados.
It was the Zimbabwe spinners, who like they did in their team’s one-off 20/20 win in Trinidad and the ODI victory here in March against the West Indies, who again caused the most problems for the batsmen.
The Veteran Price and Greg Lumb took two wickets each while Skipper and premier off-spinner Prosper Utseya had 1-32 from 4 overs for Zimbabwe who lost Hamilton Masakadza when he was run out for 4 at 10-1 before rain had the final say.
Scores: Sri Lanka 173 for 7 (Jayawardene 100) beat Zimbabwe 29 for 1 in five overs by 14 runs (D/L method).
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