World Cup 2023: Tons from Mendis, Samarawickrama power SL to 344/9 against PAK

HYDERABAD: Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama slammed magnificent centuries as Sri Lanka dished out a dominating batting performance to post a challenging 344 for nine against Pakistan in their ODI World Cup match here on Tuesday.

Mendis' 77-ball 122-run knock was the fastest hundred by a Sri Lankan in World Cup history, while Samarawickrama picked up his maiden ODI ton with an 89-ball 108 as the islanders posted their highest World Cup total against a Full Member.

The 28-year-old Mendis batted with absolute authority, clobbering six maximums and 14 fours. He starred in two 100-plus partnerships with Pathum Nissanka (51) and Samarawickrama to take Sri Lanka across the 200-mark in the 28th over.

Once Mendis was dismissed, Samarawickrama took the onus and paced his innings superbly, using his cuts and drives as Sri Lanka kept accumulating runs with ease at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

He cracked 11 boundaries and two sixes in his 89-ball knock.

For Pakistan, Hasan Ali (4/71) claimed four wickets and Haris Rauf (2/64) snapped two but overall it was a poor outing for the bowling unit, especially Shaheen Afridi (1/66 in 9 overs) and Shadab Khan (1/55 in 8 overs).

Asked to bowl, Pakistan drew first blood with Hasan Ali removing Kusal Perera (0) early but Sri Lanka recovered from it quickly with Nissanka and Mendis joining hands.

Pakistan put up a shoddy bowling performance with premier fast bowler Shaheen Afridi struggling with his line and length. The result was Nissanka and Mendis took the bowlers to the cleaners.

Nissanka was back among runs after missing out in the previous game, smashing seven fours and a maximum in his 61-ball innings. But he gave away his wicket just after reaching his fifty with Shadab producing a much-needed breakthrough.

The wicket also broke the 102-run partnership between Nissanka and Mendis.

However, there was no respite for Pakistan as Mendis continued to toy with the bowling. Shadab was punished for bowling short and wide, while Rauf too was deposited over deep square leg when he bowled short.

Mendis, who is the second-highest run-getter in ODIs this year for Sri Lanka, accumulated a lot of runs in the midwicket region.

Afridi received a thrashing from Mendis, slamming the left-arm pacer for four boundaries in an over. He then reached the three-figure mark with a flick over deep mid-wicket for a six off Hasan Ali.

With Mendis going hammer and tong, Sri Lanka crossed the 200-mark in the 28th over.

In the next over, Mendis launched on Hasan Ali with successive sixes before holing out to Imam-ul-Haq, who tried to make amends for dropping him at 19.

Ali struck again, removing Charith Asalanka (3) cheaply to break the momentum, while Mohammad Nawaz removed Dhananjaya de Silva (25) and Afridi got rid of Dasun Shanaka (12) to revive Pakistan's hopes as, between 30 to 35 overs, Pakistan conceded just 18 runs.

But Samarawickrama held the innings together to keep Sri Lanka on track for a 350-plus total. But with the pitch slowing down, Pakistan picked up two more wickets to limit them inside 350 in the end.