Jayawardene century spurs SL

Beaten by New Zealand in their previous outing, a win was imperative for the Lankans who rode on Jayawardene’s masterly 64-ball 100 — fourth century in the short history of Twenty20 Internationals — to post 173 for seven.

Zimbabwe’s chase ran into a rain-interruption after the first over from Ajantha Mendis. Play did resume after 66 minutes with the minnows chasing a revised victory target of 104 runs from 11 overs but another weather-disruption greeted them four overs later when they were 29 for one.

Consequentially the Duckworth-Lewis method was invoked and Zimbabwe were found 14 runs behind their opponents.

Earlier, the Lankan innings turned out to be a one man show with only three batsmen reaching double digit figures and Thissara Perera’s 23 being the second highest score. The defeat against New Zealand had pushed the Lankans to the brink of disaster and there was no way they could underestimate giant-killer Zimbabwe.