World Cup 2015 Match 35 Scotland v Sri Lanka Review: Sanga-Dilshan special wins it for Lanka

World Cup 2015 Match 35 Scotland v Sri Lanka Review: Sanga-Dilshan special wins it for Lanka: Sri Lanka played their last group match against Scotland at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart. Sri Lanka having already made through to the knockouts were looking to better their NRR in order to get a better position on the points table. They won the toss and chose to bat on the flattest pitch in Australia.

Sri Lanka lost Thirimanne early but Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan got together and added 195 runs for the second wicket. Kumar Sangakkara hit 124, his 4th consecutive century in ODIs and World Cups. Dilshan also scored 104 which is his 3rd century in this World Cup.  Their batting was like the master class in batting for anyone younger who was watching them bat. The Scottish bowlers were just praying for the ordeal to end when God listened to them. Josh Davey came on and dismissed Tillakaratne Dilshan for 104. In his next over, he dismissed Mahela Jayawardene (2) and Kumar Sangakkara (124) in successive balls to give Sri Lanka’s hopes for a score of 400 a big jolt.

But then Kusal Perera and Captain Mathews decided to get the innings in overdrive. Both of them scored rapidly with Perera scoring 24 off 16 balls and Mathews hitting the second fastest fifty off just 20 balls including 4 consecutive sixes off Matt Machan.  Scotland bowled well in the death overs to restrict Sri Lanka to 363/9 in 50 overs.

Scotland’s innings didn’t start well as they lost Kyle Coetzer for a duck on the second ball to Malinga. Kulasekara dismissed MacLeod for 11 and Machan was trapped LBW by Dilshan for 19. Scotland were reeling at 44/3 when Captain Mommsen and Coleman came to bat together and rebuild the innings. Together they added 118 runs for the 5th wicket. But Kulasekara dismissed Coleman for 70 and Perera had Mommsen caught for 60 runs, any hope of a Scotland fight finished with them. Richie Berrington tried hard to lower the run deficit, which he did making 29 runs. But the Sri Lankan bowlers especially Nuwan Kulasekara who took 3 wickets, restricted Scotland to 215 runs in 43 overs.

Sri Lanka will now go on to play the quarter finals against South Africa. Scotland can take heart from their performances and how close they came to winning a World Cup match against Afghanistan and the fight they gave to neighbors England.

Kumar Sangakkara was awarded the Man of the match for his record making 124, his 4th straight hundred in ODIs and this World Cup.

Brief Scores:
Sri Lanka 363/9 (K Sangakkara 124, T Dilshan 104; J Davey 3/63) defeated Scotland 215 (F Coleman 70, P Mommsen 60; N Kulasekara 3/20) by  148 runs.

Records and Trivia:

# Kumar Sangakkara is the first ever player in ODI history to score four consecutive centuries.

# Kumar Sangakkara has become the first ever player in ODI history to hit four consecutive 50+ scores on 4 separate occasions.

# Sangakkara (1025) is the first player to reach 1000 INTL runs in 2015 – he was also the first to do so in 2014 on 3rd March.

# Angelo Mathews hit the second fastest fifty in 20 balls. He is joint second on the list with Brendon McCullum, who is also the number 1 on the list.

# 5 centuries for Sangakkara in his WC career, he is level with Ponting (5) & just behind Tendulkar (6) on the list of most 100s in WC.

# 4th World Cup ton for Dilshan.

# 4 centuries for Kumar Sangakkara in this WC – the most by anyone in a single World Cup edition.

# Kumar Sangakkara (5 100s in Aus) is the first Sri Lankan to score 5 ODI centuries in a same country out of Sri Lanka.

# Dilshan & Sangakkara each has scored 2 ODI centuries at Bellerive Oval, Hobart. the most by anyone in ODIs at the ground.

# Kumar Sangakkara also has become the first visiting player to score 5 ODI centuries in Australia.

Stats Source : @cricinfo_record