Sri Lanka opened their ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 campaign with an impressive win over Canada on Sunday 20th February 2011.
Having set a total of 332 for 7, Sri Lanka then bowled out Canada for 122 in 36.5 overs, giving Sri Lanka the win by 210 runs.
Jayawardene (100) top scored for Sri Lanka, and was ably assisted by Sangakkara (92) in a third wicket partnership which added a devastating 179 runs, at an important period.
But for the performance of these two batsemen, only Dilshan, who scored 50 from opening the batting, made any significant impression with the bat for Sri Lanka.
Davison and Baidwan were the pick of the Canadian bowlers: both players took a pair of wickets for around 50 runs off 8 overs.
But is was Canada’s failure to bat against Sri Lanka’s superior bowling attack which saw them undone.
Kulasekara took three wickets for a stingy 16 runs from his 6 overs, and Perera also took three for 24 from 7. Muralitharan did the bulk of the overs, with 9, and claimed two wickets in the process for 38 runs.
Cheema (37) and Bagai (22) were the best with the bat in the Canada middle order, but the damage had already been done early in the innings, when the top order batsmen were reduced 12 runs for three wickets (having lost opener Davison first ball, with no score on the board).
Canada, who were never expected to get much from this match, then saw wickets fall with depressing regularity, en route to an all-out total of 122.
Sri Lanka will want to bat better, through the team, in their next match with Pakistan on 26 February, but will no doubt be pleased with the way their bowlers went about their task in this match.
Sri Lanka v Canada – ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Scorecard
| Sri Lanka 1st Innings | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | ||
| Tharanga | run out (Bagai) | 20 | 31 | 1 | 0 | |
| Dilshan | c Davison | b Cheema | 50 | 59 | 8 | 0 |
| Sangakkara | c and b | Davison | 92 | 87 | 7 | 1 |
| M Jayawardene | c Rao | b Davison | 100 | 81 | 9 | 1 |
| Perera | run out (Surkari) | 11 | 11 | 1 | 0 | |
| Mathews | c and b | Baidwan | 21 | 16 | 3 | 0 |
| Kapugedera | c Sub | b Baidwan | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Samaraweera | not out | 18 | 10 | 3 | 0 | |
| Kulasekara | not out | 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
| Extras | 1nb 8w 2lb | 11 | ||||
| Total | for 7 | 332 | (50.0 ovs) | |||
| Canada Bowlers | O | M | R | W | ||
| Chauhan | 8 | 0 | 62 | 0 | ||
| Osinde | 2.1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | ||
| Baidwan | 8.5 | 0 | 59 | 2 | ||
| Hansra | 9 | 0 | 47 | 0 | ||
| Cheema | 7 | 0 | 47 | 1 | ||
| Rao | 7 | 0 | 48 | 0 | ||
| Davison | 8 | 0 | 56 | 2 | ||
| Canada 1st Innings | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | ||
| Gunasekera | c Dilshan | b Kulasekara | 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Davison | b Perera | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Surkari | lbw | b Perera | 6 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Hansra | st Sangakkara | b Samaraweera | 9 | 49 | 0 | 0 |
| Bagai | c Sangakkara | b Perera | 22 | 47 | 2 | 0 |
| Cheema | c M Jayawardene | b Muralitharan | 37 | 35 | 4 | 2 |
| Gordon | c Sangakkara | b Kulasekara | 4 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Chauhan | c Sangakkara | b Kulasekara | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Baidwan | not out | 16 | 35 | 1 | 0 | |
| Rao | c Tharanga | b Muralitharan | 6 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| Osinde | b Mendis | 4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | |
| Extras | 1nb 4w 8lb | 13 | ||||
| Total | all out | 122 | (36.5 ovs) | |||
| Sri Lanka Bowlers | O | M | R | W | ||
| Kulasekara | 6 | 2 | 16 | 3 | ||
| Perera | 7 | 0 | 24 | 3 | ||
| Mendis | 7.5 | 3 | 18 | 1 | ||
| Muralitharan | 9 | 0 | 38 | 2 | ||
| Dilshan | 5 | 0 | 14 | 0 | ||
| Samaraweera | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | ||
