Published: Mar 11, 2015, 06:21 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 11, 2015, 06:23 PM (IST)
The only reason this match garnered a lot of interest around the world was if Kumar Sangakkara could go and get that world record. And the Sri Lankan legend didn’t disappoint his fans. No disrespect to Scotland, but the brand of cricket Sri Lanka displayed in the past few weeks, they were by far the favourites and they justified their tag, as they beat the team from United Kingdom by 148 runs in the Pool A match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. (ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Full coverage)
At the end of the game the only thing you wonder is why Kumar Sangakkara is retiring from One-Day International (ODI) cricket after the end of this tournament. He not only became the first batsman to smash four consecutive hundreds in ODIs but also became the only player to score that many in a World Cup event. Wait, it doesn’t end here, he surpassed Adam Gilchrist’s record for most dismissals as a wicket-keeper in World Cup and also went past the landmark of 500 dismissals. (ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Points Table)
Earlier, Angelo Mathews won the toss and batted first. The stalwarts, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sangakkara added 195 for the second wicket. Dilshan scored 104 from 99 balls, while Sangakkara got 124 from 95. There were moments when both the batsmen were at 98 and 99, at the same time, but eventually Dilshan reached the milestone earlier. The innings received further impetus after skipper Mathews belted a 51 from just 21 balls. Sri Lanka ended with 363 and the only consolation the Scottish bowlers had was the fact Josh Davey picking up three wickets, which now makes him the bowler with highest wickets in this World Cup.
Later, Lasith Malinga struck in the first over, dismissing last match centurion Kyle Coetzer for a duck. Scotland fought hard with the bat. Captain Preston Mommsen and Freddie Coleman added 118 for the fourth wicket, but in the end the score was too big. Scotland were eventually bowled out for 215 and not surprisingly, Sangakkara was adjudged the man-of-the-match.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 363 for 9 in 50 overs (Tillakaratne Dilshan 104, Kumar Sangakkara 124, Angelo Mathews 51; Josh Davey 3-63, Richie Berrington 2-31) bt Scotland 215 from 43.1 overs (Preston Mommsen 60, Freddie Coleman 70; Lasith Malinga 2-29, Nuwan Kulasekara 3-20, Dushmantha Chameera 3-51)
