Dilse - the highest partnership in WC - Lanka thrashes Zimbabwe

There are 16 matches to go and on Thursday – the 26^th match meandered to a foregone result – Lankans made mincemeat of Zimbabwe scoring 327 and beating them by 139

The match was at Pallekele about which I had written recently.  The decision to bowl by Elton Chigumbara went terribly wrong and they failed to take a wicket in the first 44 overs.  Lankan openers Tilakaratne Dilshan and Upul Taranga grinded on and on and had a record partnership of 282 when the first wicket fell.  It should have been a grueling time for them on the field.  The first ball of the game – Chris Mpofu appealed against Tharanga and after that there were no voices from the fielding side.  

This partnership is the highest opening partnership in WC and overall is the fourth.  The first three for any wicket are by Asians.  Zimbabwe can take solace that they too had a hundred + (116 run to be precise) opening stand between Brendan Taylor and Regis Chakabva.  Dilshan, whose ad is ‘dil scoop’ came back to take 4 wickets (for 4)  and becoming the best bowling performance by a lankan spinner in WC in the process.

The highest partnership in ODI is that Rahul Dravid & Sachin – 331 against Newzealand at Hyderabad in Nov 1999.  Second also featured Dravid partnering Ganguly 318  (both for the second wicket) against Lanka at Taunton in May 1999.  Third featured Tharanga with Jayasuriya – 286 against England at Leeds in 2006.

I had circulated forms for “SYMA Cricket World Cup Contest 2011” – the results have indicated answers for most of the questions and the contest closes on 15^th Mar 2011. Please do handover the completed forms to me.  If you require printed ones, the same is also available with me.  Those outside Chennai can send in their entries by e mail also.

Regards – S. Sampathkumar.