Sangakkara leads Sri Lanka to
thumping win over Kenya

Sangakkara followed up the maiden one-day 100 against Pakistan on Friday with a resolute 103 not out to help Sri Lanka avenge their 53-run loss in the World Cup in Nairobi.

Sri Lanka moved into second place in the standings behind Pakistan and they will meet the Pakistanis in the final if they  beat Zimbabwe on Monday.

Sangakkara featured in a 93-run stand for the fourth wicket with Hashan Tillekaratne (43) as Sri Lanka posted a challenging 256 for five from their 50 overs.

Kenya, the only non-Test playing country to reach a World Cup semi-finals, crumbled in the face of a spot-on Sri Lankan attack, spearheaded by Muttiah Muralitharan.

He ran through the lower order with a three-wicket burst after Prabhat Nissanka and Sanath Jayasuriya shared four early wickets.

Sangakkara's second successive century did set up Sri Lanka's first win in two matches, but it failed to overshadow the personal milestone of skipper Sanath Jayasuriya.

Jayasuriya, playing in his 299th match, crossed the 9,000-run mark in one-day cricket to become the fourth highest run-scorer in the world after Sachin Tendulkar (12,219), Mohammed Azharuddin (9,378) and Aravinda de Silva (9,284).

EARLY STRUGGLE

Kenya needed a solid start from their frontline batsmen to make a match of it, but an early double strike by Nissanka and one wicket each by Buddhika Fernando and Kaushal Lakuarachchi reduced them to a 35 for four by the 11th over.

Only Maurice Odumbe, a success story of the World Cup, offered some resistance, chipping in with 42 off 68 balls with five fours as Kenya folded in 37.5 overs.

Earlier, Sangakkara held the Sri Lankan innings together with an authoritative display after Jayasuriya and Avishka Gunawardene ensured a solid start by contributing 53 runs.

Jayasuriya, who needed just seven runs to reach the 9,000 mark, fell lbw to a Tony Suji ball which pitched outside the leg stump, as TV replays showed, but umpire Avi Jayaprakash had no hesitation in raising his finger.

Jayasuriya, who made 36 off 45 balls, said: "Kenya beat us in the World Cup and we are very happy to have defeated them here."

"Our spinners bowled well after our pacemen had done the job earlier on."

Kenyan captain Steve Tikolo said: "We were pleased to have restricted Sri Lanka to 256 but we didn't play well enough later."