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Sanga, Dilshan clobber hapless Scots

Kumar Sangakkara created history by notching up a record fourth consecutive ODI century that powered Sri Lanka to a crushing 148-run win over Scotland in their final group league match of the ICC World Cup on Wednesday.

In becoming the first man in ODI history to score centuries in four successive innings, the 37-year-old veteran, together with opener Tillakaratne Dilshan  (104), helped the team put up a mammoth 363 for nine after skipper Angelo Mathews elected to bat at the Bellerive Oval.

Set a daunting target in the group A match, Scotland’s innings ended at 215 in 43.1 overs, and the minnows have another match to play in the mega-event where they have failed to win a single game so far. Sri Lanka are now second in the points table, behind New Zealand, with four wins in six games. However, the final positions in the group will be known only after the New Zealand-Bangladesh and Australia-Scotland games.

The 195-run partnership for the second wicket was Sangakkara and Dilshan’s 20th century stand in ODIs, leaving them second only to Indian legends Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.

Playing in the last one-day tournament of his illustrious 15-year career, Sangakkara, in red-hot form in the mega-event, blazed his way to an enterprising 124 off 95 balls, while Dilshan struck a 99-ball 104. Skipper Angelo Mathews (51) smashed the second-fastest half-century of this World Cup, off 20 balls. The Islanders though lost a series of wickets towards the end, denying them a 400-plus total.

The Scots were off to a disastrous start, losing three wickets with just 44 runs on the board in the 12th over. The game was as good at that point but Freddie Coleman (70) and skipper Preston Mommsen (60) shared 118 runs for the fourth wicket to steady the ship.

However, both batsmen got out after making fluent half-centuries, each hitting seven boundaries while defying the Lankan bowlers for a while. Richie Berrington made 29 off 22 balls to delay the inevitable. Among the Lankan bowlers, Nuwan Kulasekara returned figures of 3/20 and pace spearhead Lasith Malinga picked up 2/29. Making his debut, 23-year-old rookie fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera, too, finished with three wickets.

Record-breaker

Veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara on Wednesday registered three ODI  world records, two with the bat and one with the gloves as Sri Lanka hammered Scotland by 148 runs in a World Cup Pool A match at the Bellerive Oval.

 Sangakkara (124 in 95 balls) became the first batsman to record four consecutive hundreds, his overall 25th. In the process, he also became the first batsman to score four centuries in a World Cup
 Sangakkara, who will quit ODIs post World Cup, passed three-figure mark in 86 balls to complement his scores of 105* against Bangladesh, 117* against England and 104 against Australia from earlier ties.

 The southpaw became just the seventh man in ODI history and the first in a World Cup to score three consecutive centuries. It is his 62nd international century in an incredible career that is now in its 15th year. The veteran wicketkeeper-batsman announced before the World Cup began that he would retire from ODI cricket at the end of the tournament.

 Not content with run-scoring records, he also became the first man to effect 500 ODI dismissals. Coming into the match, he had 400 catches. He took two catches of Cross and Michael Leask. He now has 402 catches and 99 stumpings to his credit.

 He also passed Adam Gilchrist’s record of 52 World Cup dismissals by taking the catch off a faint edge from Leask. By the end of the match, he had taken 41 catches and made 13 stumpings in World Cups. Gilchrist made 45 catches and seven stumpings in 31 World Cup matches (Sangakkara was playing his 36th).

 Earlier in the tournament, Sangakkara became the fourth cricketer in ODI history to play 400 matches behind Sachin Tendulkar (463) and compatriots Sanath Jayasurya (445) and Mahela Jayawardene (444).

SCOREBOARD

Sri Lanka innings
HDRL Thirimanne c Mommsen b Evans 4, TM Dilshan c MacLeod b Davey 104, KC Sangakkara† c †Cross b Davey 124, DPMD Jayawardene c MacLeod b Davey 2, AD Mathews* c Coleman b Machan 51, MDKJ Perera c MacLeod b Taylor 24, NLTC Perera c Coleman b Berrington 7, S Prasanna c Coleman b Evans 3, KMDN Kulasekara not out 18, SL Malinga c Leask b Berrington 1, PVD Chameera not out 12; Extras (lb 3, w 10) 13 Total (9 wickets; 50 overs) 363 (7.26 runs per over) FoW 1-21, 2-216, 3-244, 4-244, 5-289, 6-326, 7-328, 8-331, 9-336 Bowling RML Taylor 10-0-46-1, AC Evans 10-0-72-2, JH Davey 8-0-63-3, RD Berrington 6.1-0-31-2, MA Leask 7-0-63-0, KJ Coetzer 4.5-0-39-0

Scotland innings
KJ Coetzer c & b Malinga 0, CS MacLeod b Kulasekara 11, MW Machan lbw b Dilshan 19, PL Mommsen* c Thirimanne b NLTC Perera 60, FRJ Coleman c NLTC Perera b Kulasekara 70, RD Berrington c Kulasekara b Chameera 29, MA Leask c †Sangakkara b Kulasekara 2, MH Cross† c †Sangakkara b Chameera 7, RML Taylor c NLTC Perera b Malinga 3, JH Davey c Thirimanne b Chameera 4, AC Evans not out 1; Extras (lb 2, w 6, nb 1) 9 Total (all  out; 43.1 overs) 215 (4.98 runs per over) FoW 1-0, 2-26, 3-44, 4-162, 5-189, 6-192, 7-200, 8-209, 9-210, 10-215 Bowling SL Malinga 9-0-29-2, KMDN Kulasekara 7-0-20-3, NLTC Perera 7-0-41-1, TM Dilshan 5-0-15-1, S Prasanna 8-0-57-0, PVD Chameera 7.1-0-51-3
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