Jayasuriya blasts 109 as Sri Lanka crush B'desh by 198 runs

Port of Spain, Mar 22 (UNI) Master blaster Sanath Jayasuriya smashed a power-packed 87-ball 109 as Sri Lanka brought Bangladesh down to earth handing them a crushing 198-run defeat in their Group B match here and virtually assuring themselves a place in the Super Eight stage of the World Cup.

Asked to chase an adjusted target of 311 in 46 overs on the Duckworth/Lewis method after rain interrupted play thrice yesterday, Bangladesh collapsed to 112 in 37 overs. Earlier, Sri Lanka pulverised Bangladesh bowling to pile up a huge 318 for 4 Jayasuriya was declared man of the match. Sri Lanka gave a highly clinical and professional display in all departments of the game and had few lessons for the Tigers who were riding high after beating India.

Bangladesh, were totally off-colour and neither their bowling or batting could pose any threat to the Islanders and to add to their woes, they gave a very shoddy fielding display too.

After their bowlers were sent to leather hunt by Jayasuriya and other batsmen, the Bangladesh batsmen found it hard to negotiate the varied seam and spin attack of their rivals and at one time wree tottering at 66 for 6 in just 25.3 overs.

The Bangladeshi players look pale shadow of themselves as compared to their spirited performance against India. There was no exuberance, no aggressive body language and good showing in any departments of the game. Only Mohammad Ashraful faced Sri Lankan bowling with some grit and determination and emerged as the top-scorer for the losing side with an unbeaten 45 (63 balls,6x4).

Skipper Habibul Bashar 18 (47b,2x4), Aftab Ahmed(16 b,2x4) were the other main scorers. For the winners Lasith Malinga too three wickets for 27 runs while five other bowlers shared a wicket each.

Jayasuriya playing in his fifth and perhaps last world cup taught the Bangladesh bowlers a lesson as he sent them on a leather hunt hitting seven six and equal number of boundaries to script his 24 one day international century.

Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar won the toss and immediately invite Mahela Jayawardene to take first strike, hoping for Mashrafe Mortaza to repeat the sort of performance he had turned in against India.

Both sides named unchanged XI from their opening wins, Sri Lanka over Bermuda and Bangladesh over India.

The Lankans were however, better prepared even though Mortaza and new ball partner Syed Rasel managed to extract plenty of life from the pitch, using two slips to begin with.

Having played out the first couple of overs to gauge the life in the track, Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga settled in and extracted a heavy price for anything wayward. The early spell of play was all for Bangladesh with Mortaza in particular managing to work up good bounce and swing that particularly tested Tharanga.

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