Jayawardene ton sinks outclassed Canada

For the many who slammed the ICC's decision to expel Associates from the next World Cup, this was a bad day. After Kenya were embarrassed by a modest New Zealand team, Canada desperately needed to showcase why minnow teams belong on the global stage. Instead they were overwhelmed by 210 runs against Sri Lanka, who opened their World Cup campaign as emphatically as their co-hosts India did on Saturday.

Mahela Jayawardene stroked his way to the fastest World Cup hundred by a Sri Lankan, sharing a 176-run stand with his captain Kumar Sangakkara, before the home side's pace bowlers rushed through a hapless Canadian line-up to deliver a crushing victory.

After India's fervoured opening in Mirpur, proceedings at Hambantota felt much more leisurely, and with a combination of sight screen problems and a few injuries, it took the visitors four hours to get through their fielding effort. For the first 20 overs of Sri Lanka's innings the scoring rate was almost as sluggish - despite a 59-ball half-century for Tillakaratne Dilshan - as Canada demonstrated the ideal model for Associate cricket. Disciplined dobbers combined with swift fielding and a slowish track to keep Sri Lanka in check.

It was only when Jayawardene arrived that Sri Lanka's campaign really kicked into gear. He was in total control, threading the spinners through the finest gaps and caressing boundaries at will. Sangakkara was not quite as fluent, needing 47 deliveries to find his first boundary. He survived two moments of alarm, when he was dropped on 12 by by 16-year-old Nitish Kumar, on as a substitute, and again on 48 by the rotund legspinner Balaji Rao.

Jayawardene barely mistimed a ball but twice survived reviews from Canada captain Ashish Bagai, who was convinced he was out caught behind. On both occasions the appeal was spontaneous and exuberant but the UDRS - without Snicko and HotSpot - revealed nothing. With those behind him, Jayawardene's glances, chips, pick-up-sweeps and even a reverse-thwack toyed with an attack that faded under pressure.