DHAKA: Mahela Jayawardene’s ton and finisher Thisara Perera’s knock helped Sri Lanka defeat Afghanistan by four wickets in the World Cup Cricket Pool A match in Dunedin Sunday.

Sri Lanka scored 236 runs after chasing Afghanistan-set 233-run target with 10 balls remaining at University Oval stadium.

The Lankan quickly lost three top order batsmen – HDRL Thirimanne, TM Dilshan, and KC Sangakkara. At that time, their score was just 18 runs in 5.3 overs.

FDM Karunaratne resisted Afghanistan blowers awhile but Hamid Hassan made him walk to the pavilion. Sri Lanka lost its fourth wicket at 51 runs in 11.6 overs.

Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews together built a strong fifth-wicket partnership accelerating the team to beat Afghanistan.

As the oldest cricketer in the World Cup Jayawardene scored 100 runs off 120 balls before Hamid Hassan took him. Angelo Mathews contributed    44 runs off 81 balls till he became victim of run out by Mohammad Nabi.

Thisara Perera was the man to beat the Afghanistan blowing, scoring 47 runs of 26 with six fours and a six.

Afghanistan’s Hamid Hassan took three wickets while Dawlat Zadran and Shapoor Zadran bagged one each.

Earlier, Afghanistan scored 232 runs all out in 49.4 overs. Asghar Stanikzai hit a fifty, scoring 54 runs off 57 balls.     Samiullah Shenwari, Mirwais Ashraf, and Javed Ahmadi contributed 38, 28 and 24 runs respectively.
 
SL Malinga and AD Mathews took three wickets each whiler RAS Lakmal picked two, Herath and Perera bagged one wicket each.

The match kicked off at 9:30am Bangladesh time in University Oval of Dunedin.

Mahela Jayawardene, Man of the Match, said : “All credit to Afghanistan. Thought they batted really well in tough conditions, then followed it up beautifully with the ball. So feeling really relieved in the end to get over the line. They have the pace, the movement, and they are a handful.”

“Not a big gap between the top countries and these guys. The wicket was looking a bit ifficult, but when I joined Mathews it was important to try and hang in there and finish off the game. I thought Thisara played really well to finish it off for us. It was a bit of wait after the first game, but we do have two quick games coming up, so we are looking to get prepared for those,” he added.

Defeated captain Mohammad Nabi said: “The first 30 overs after the 15-over power play we didn't play well. I felt we were short by 30-40 runs. We bowled really well in those first 10-15 overs, putting pressure on them in the end. We also missed out on a few run outs, but we definitely kept them to a tight game, so we are pleased.”

“The way Mahela and Mathews played was brilliant, and they didn't seem to have any pressure. I hope we play well in the next game as well. Both Dawlat and Shapoor bowled brilliantly, and hopefully they will be fitter for the next game too,” he said.

Wining captain Angelo Mathews said: “A bit of relief. Thought we came back well after going down with a lot of pressure. We really need to raise our standards to compete against the top teams. It was a see-saw kind of game. They started off beautifully, and then we pulled back in the end.”

“I was actually struggling to time the ball, but I knew I had to stay out there with Mahela to get some kind of stand going. Those runs from Perera at the end were unbelievable. (Twitter question - How calming was Mahela?) We try to float him around in the middle if needed, or up the order if we require his sort of experience,” he added.

BDST: 1230 HRS, FEB 20, 2015