With rain falling and the nagging danger of a Duckworth Lewis recalibration favouring Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka must have feared the worst on Monday. Victory for Zimbabwe would have knocked last year's beaten finalists out of the tournament after they lost their opening match against New Zealand, and denied Mahela Jayawardene's innings the match-winning verdict it deserved. But Sri Lanka.
Who finished their innings on 173 for seven, played the rain game perfectly, scampering around to bowl the five overs they needed to make this a competitive match. With Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga and Sanath Jayasuriya to negotiate, Zimbabwe were always staring at a tough task once their target had been readjusted to 104. By the end of the fifth over, when rain struck for the final time, they had managed just a collection of singles and were well short of their necessary par score, giving Sri Lanka victory by 14 runs.
It was just reward for Jayawardene. His 100 was a classy innings. A Test match knock played on fast forward. He treated the rare good deliveries with respect and played sublime shots to the ones that asked to be hit, of which there was never a short supply.
He stroked 10 fours and four sixes as he reached a century that was the plank of the Sri Lanka innings. Zimbabwe had picked four spinners to try and stifle their wristy opponents but Jayawardene is one of the world's finest players and knew he was onto a good thing when Chris Mpofu served up some half-volleys in the first over which were speared for four and six. He needed only 27 balls to reach his half-century and was on course to pass Chris Gayle's record Twenty20 score of 117 when he played his only false stroke, a mistimed loft over long on in the penultimate over.
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