Sri Lanka entered the Group A clash against Bangladesh on the heels of their victory against Afghanistan. Scores of Sri Lanka supporters gathered at the MCG to watch their heroes take to the field.
Sri Lanka who won the toss couldn’t have asked for a better start. Openers Lahiru Thirimanne and T.M. Dilshan put on 122 runs for the first wicket.
Thirimanne who scored a half century was the first to fall as he was caught in the deep off a Rubel Hossain delivery.
This brought Kumar Sangakkara to the middle, this is incidentally his 400 th ODI outing. Only three others have surpassed this mark (Tendulkar, Jayasuriya, Jayawardene)
Together the pair set about decimating the Bengal bowling attack. Dilshan quickly went on to score his 3rd world cup century, equaling the most number of centuries by a Sri Lanka opener in World cups.
Dilshan went on to surpass the 150 run mark as well. Sangakkara was not far off as he recorded his 22nd ODI century on Thursday.
Sri Lanka ended up with 332 runs in their allotted 50 overs with Sangakkara not out on 105 and Dilshan unbeaten on 161.
Incidentally Dilshan allowed him to eclipse the previous record for highest score by a Sri Lanka batsman in World Cup match. The record was earlier held by Aravinda de Silva (144 vs Kenya, in 1996).
Bangladesh have to case down 333 runs for victory.
