Jayawardene century maintains Sri Lanka hopes

MAHELA Jayawardene became the fourth man to score a century in a Twenty20 international, his score of exactly 100 helping Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe in a rain-affected game yesterday.

Jayawardene, in sparkling form, helped Sri Lanka reach 173 for seven in their 20 overs before rain limited Zimbabwe to just five overs in reply. They managed 29 for the loss of one wicket in that time, leaving Sri Lanka the winners by 14 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Tournament rules state that an innings must last at least five overs to count towards a result.

Jayawardene opened the innings and dominated from the outset, scoring ten fours and four sixes before he went in the penultimate over having reached his century in 64 balls. The classy former skipper had helped Sri Lanka make a blistering start, bringing up 50 in just 5.1 overs and 100 inside 12 overs but found it slower going later in the innings.

Jayawardene's century was the second of this tournament following Indian Suresh Raina's against South Africa on Sunday.

Despite losing their opening game to New Zealand, Sri Lanka have a good chance of progressing to the Super Eight stage. Last year's runners-up are without record-breaking spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who has been ruled out of the tournament with a groin injury.