Sri Lanka's World Cup bid on target, says Jayawardene

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Mar 6 (Reuters) It was mission accomplished for Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene after his team enjoyed a 159-run victory over Scotland in their opening World Cup warm-up match.

The 1996 champions are considered one of the dark horses for the title in the Caribbean and underlined their intentions after amassing 294 for seven before skittling out the Scottish side for 135 in the 42nd over.

''Coming into the World Cup and playing a side like Scotland whom we haven't played before, we wanted to make sure that we concentrate really well, focus on the game in hand and we did that,'' Jayawardene told reporters yesterday.

''All round we played really good cricket. We had a 100-run stand, we had a couple of 50-run stands. The only thing we would have liked to have done is one of the guys batting through the innings and getting 100.'' Sanath Jayasuriya (77) and Upul Tharanga (70) exposed the lack of depth in the Scottish bowling attack after they piled on 117 runs for the opening wicket and Kumar Sangakkara later joined in the run fest by smashing 81 off 87 deliveries.

EMPHATIC NATURE Despite the emphatic nature of the result, the Sri Lankans had started the match cautiously but Jayawardene said that had all been part of the strategy.

''We wanted to asses how the wicket would play here,'' he said.

''We felt that it was a bit slow and if we had given away early wickets it would have been difficult for us. Once the openers got used to the pitch and the wicket, we got our target, we got 120 in 20 overs.

''We played some smart cricket today and that's what we might have to do in this World Cup because the wickets will play differently in different places.'' Craig Wright's men started off promisingly in their reply but once they lost their opener Fraser Watts with the score on 33, wickets fell at regular intervals and Scotland headed for an inevitable defeat.

Even though his team whipped the Scottish team without much hassle, Jayawardene defended the inclusion of a record six non-test playing nations at this year's World Cup.

''It's healthy for cricket (to have these teams playing here),'' he said.

''That's how we've reached the standard we have now. If we hadn't been given the opportunity 20 years ago, we probably wouldn't have been here. In our point of view, that's how teams would get exposure and would get experience.'' Reuters SRS VP0600