Mumbai, April 2: Mahela Jayawardene scored an unbeaten century (103*) for Sri Lanka in the 2011 ICC World Cup final being played against India here at the Wankhede Stadium. Jayawardene’s effort has set the Indians a target of 275 to win.
The day began with some confusion over the toss. When the toss was conducted the first time round, the captains appeared confused about who had called right. As a result, the toss was conducted a second time Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara emerged the winner and opted to bat first.
The Lankans made three changes bringing in Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara and Suraj Randiv into their side. The Indians, on the other hand, decided to play S Sreesanth in place of the injured Ashish Nehra.
In the 2003 World Cup final, Zaheer Khan gave away 28 runs off his first three overs as the Australian openers took him apart. Today, though, Zaheer made amends with a neat first spell. He did not give away a single run in his first three overs while his 19th delivery gave India its first wicket, Virender Sehwag taking a sharp catch at first slip to dismiss Upul Tharanga (2). Zaheer Khan’s final over, however, yielded 18 crucial runs, propelling the visitors to a solid score of 274.
S Sreesanth, playing just his second game of the tournament, complemented Zaheer’s initially and the Indians kept the Sri Lankans down to just 31 runs for one wicket in their first 10 overs.
The Sri Lankans picked up the pace thereafter scoring 27 in the second Powerplay. But Harbhajan’s dismissal of Tillakaratne Dilshan (33) in the 17th over kept the Lankans in check.
Two productive partnerships followed for the visitors – 62 between Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene and 57 runs between Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera – that helped give their innings the required momentum.
Yuvraj got rid of Sangakkara (48) and Samaraweera (21) and with Chamara Kapugedera (1) falling to Zaheer Khan, India had the Lankans in a spot of bother at 182 for five in 39.5 overs.
However, Jayawardene guided Sri Lanka past that situation helping himself to a hundred in the process. His century came off just 84 deliveries with the middle-order batsman hardly playing a risky shot during his entire innings. Jayawardene’s effort also saw Sri Lanka score 91 runs off their last ten overs to propel them to a score of 274.
Jayawardene remained unbeaten on 103 while Nuwan Kulasekara (32 off 30 balls) and Thisara Perera (22* off 9 deliveries) played vital cameos for Sri Lanka.
Brief score: Sri Lanka 274 for six in 50.0 overs (Mahela Jayawardene 103*, Kumar Sangakkara 48, Yuvraj Singh 2/49, Zaheer Khan 2/60).
