Sana, Sanga in record opening stand

Chris DHAMBARAGE from pakistan

Veteran Sanath Jayasuriya celebrated his 39th birthday by stroking a trail blazing century as the defending champions Sri Lanka piled up a huge 332 for 8 in their six nation ACC Asia Cup limited overs tournament Super Four match against Bangladesh worked off under lights at the National Stadium in Karachi yesterday.

The dashing left hand opening batsman scored his fifth Asia Cup one hundred and became the sixth fastest ever to reach the three figure mark inclusive of five sixes and 14 boundaries. Jayasuriya also became the second oldest player to score a century after England›s Geoff Boycott who made 105 against Australia at the age of 39 years and 51 days at Sydney in 1976.

Jayasuriya playing in his 417th one day international made his intentions quite clear by smashing the very first delivery into the extra cover boundary. From there onwards he played some fantastic shots on either side of the wicket and raced to his half century from just 31 deliveries inclusive of four sixes and half a dozen of boundaries.

Jayasuriya cut and pulled with gay abundance and went on to complete his 26th one day international century from just 55 deliveries with the help of five sixes and 14 boundaries. He now drew level with Australian captain Ricky Ponting who also has 26 one day international hundreds to his credit.

Jayasuriya was involved in another record with his partner Kumar Sangakkara as the pair put on the first double century opening stand in the Asia Cup while erasing the previous best of 191 runs between Jayasuriya himself and Avishka Gunawardena against Bangladesh at the R. Premadasa Stadium in 2004.

In fact Jayasuriya has been associated in four one day international double century partnerships including the World record of 286 runs with Upul Tharanga against England at Leeds in 2006. His other double hundred partnerships were 237 with Marvan Atapattu against Australia at Sydney in January 2003 and 201 with Upul Tharanga against New Zealand in Napier in December 2006.

Jayasuriya who also became the first batsman to complete one thousand runs in the history of the Asia Cup was eventually dismissed for a magnificent 130 having put on 201 runs for the first wicket with Kumar Sangakkara from 28 overs.

Vice captain Sangakkara took over the main role from there onwards and joined in the fun with his third century in the current Asia Cup tournament. The stylish left hander who made 101 against Bangladesh in a first round game in Lahore and 112 against Pakistan on Sunday at the same venue again batted with a great amount of authority to score a splendid 121.

Sangakkara collected his runs from 127 deliveries with one six and 16 boundaries and was sixth out with the total at 292 in the 45th over. Sri Lanka retained the same side that defeated Pakistan by 64 runs on Sunday. KARACHI, Monday

SRI LANKA innings
S. Jayasuriya c Iqbal b Kapali 		130
K. Sangakkara b Razzak 			121
M. Jayawardene c Ashraful b Kapali 	20
C. Kapugedera c Kapali b Hossain 	01
C. Silva lbw b Reza 			05
T. Dilshan run out 			02 
C. Vaas c Hasan b Reza 			07
T. Mirando b Mortaza 			10
N. Kulasekera not out 			18
A. Mendis not out 			08
EXTRAS (lb-3 w-5 nb-2) 			10
TOTAL (for eight wickets, 50 overs) 	332
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-201 2-235 3-243 4-263 5-267 6-292 7-304 8-310
BOWLING: Mortaza 10-0-78-1 (2w), Hossain 7-1-46-1 (2w),
Razzak 10-0-71-1 (2nb), Reza 9-1-51-2, Mahmudullah 8-0-43-0, Kapali 6-0-40-2