Dilshan stars as Sri Lanka ease through to quarters

Tillakaratne Dilshan hit a magnificent century and then picked up four wickets as Sri Lanka trounced Zimbabwe by 139 runs in Kandy to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.

Dilshan, who hit 144 off 131 balls, and Upul Tharanga, who made 133 off 141, put on 282, the best opening partnership in World Cup history, but fell just five short of the all-time one-day international record set by Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya against England five years ago.

In pursuit of Sri Lanka's total of 327 for six, Zimbabwe got off to a promising start but were derailed by the loss of Brendan Taylor (80 off 72) and were eventually bundled out for 188 with 11 overs remaining.

Asked to bat first after losing the toss, Sri Lanka reached 100 off just 16.1 overs and Dilshan and Tharanga soon brought up their half-centuries.

Zimbabwe fought back in the middle overs through miserly opening spells from Ray Price, Prosper Utseya and Greg Lamb, as just 76 runs came off the 17 overs bowled by that trio.

But Sri Lanka broke loose during the batting power play which yielded 51. Dilshan blazed to his ninth ODI century off just 95 balls while Tharanga took 122 balls to reach his tenth hundred.

However, Zimbabwe finally got the elusive breakthrough in the 44th over and a heap of wickets followed to help the visitors regain some momentum.

Chris Mpofu picked up four wickets in two overs but Kumar Sangakkara (11 not out) and Thilan Samaraweera (8no) guided Sri Lanka to 327 for six.

Dilshan claimed three wickets in two overs to reduce Zimbabwe to 156 for six after 30 overs. He removed Craig Ervine and Lamb with successive balls of his second over, and was unlucky to be denied a hat-trick when Graeme Cremer was dropped at slip by Mahela Jayawardene.

Muttiah Muralitharan then sent back captain Elton Chigumbura and Zimbabwe were soon 185 for eight when Price holed out in the deep off Thisara Perera, leaving Dilshan and Muralitharan to polish off the tail.