Afghan bowlers a bigger test than England’s: Centurion Thirimanne

Monday, 2 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

LahiruThirimanne celebrates reaching his century during their Cricket World Cup match against England in Wellington, 1 March – Reuters Reuters: Lahiru Thirimanne’s unbeaten century to guide Sri Lanka to a crushing nine-wicket victory over England in their World Cup Pool A clash on Sunday could not have come at a better time for the side who are now building some momentum. The 25-year-old Thirimanne stroked his way to his fourth ODI century and highest score to finish on 139 not out, while Kumar Sangakkara was 117 not out as Sri Lanka scored 312 for one in 47.2 overs to chase down England’s 309-6. It gave Sri Lanka their third successive victory and was the highest successful run chase by a side at Wellington Regional Stadium, but more importantly it gave them some valuable confidence after a tiring two months in New Zealand. Thirimanne and Sangakarra’s knocks on Sunday mean that all of the top four in their lineup have now scored a century at the World Cup. His coming of age at the tournament could prove to be influential in the later stages as they now do not need to rely so much on their ‘Big Three’ of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sangakkara, and Mahela Jayawardene to provide their runs. Thirimanne was dismissed for a golden duck on the first ball of Sri Lanka’s innings against Afghanistan in Dunedin and he quipped on Sunday that the associate nation’s bowlers had given him more trouble than England’s had. “That day Afghanistan’s bowlers did really well but there was a little bit for the seamers at that Dunedin wicket so .... today was easy for me to be honest,” a laughing Thirimanne told a news conference.