It was the 1646th ODI in cricket history.It was Sri Lanka's 334th and Zimbabwe's 164th ODI.It was the 23rd meeting between the two sides. The record now reads :
Sri Lanka 17, Zimbabwe 5, abandoned 1.Umpires Steve Dunne and George Sharp were officiating in their 90th
and 20th match respectively.Stuart Carlisle was playing his 50th match. He became the 12th Zimbabwean
and 225th player overall to do so.Sanath Jayasuriya on 6 completed his 1000 runs at this
venue. Jayasuriya was playing his 38th match and 37th innings. He
became the fourth Sri Lankan after Aravinda de Silva (1402 runs in 50
matches), Roshan Mahanama (1015 in 38) and Arjuna Ranatunga (1010 in
45) and 12th batsman overall to do so. Just for the record, Pakistan's
Inzamam-ul-Haq with 1810 runs from 43 appearances holds the record of
aggregating most runs at Sharjah.Jayasuriya scored 22 runs off Bryan Strang's fifth over (tenth over of
Sri Lankan innings). The sequence: 6 4 4 4 0 4.Jayasuriya once again failed to score a hundred at this venue. He has
now scored nine fifties in his 38 appearances with the highest of 88
against West Indies on 17-10-1999.The ninth wicket partnership of 34 runs between Dirk Viljoen and
Travis Friend is Zimbabwe's best for this wicket against Sri Lanka.
This obliterates the previous best of 25 between Gary Crocker and
David Brain also at Sharjah on 03-02-1993.The partnership is also the best for the ninth wicket for any side against
Sri Lanka at Sharjah bettering the 28 run-partnership between Ijaz
Ahmed and Mushtaq Ahmed for Pakistan on 21-12-1990.Jayawardene with three catches in the field equals the existing record
of most catches by a Sri Lankan in a match at Sharjah. Roshan Mahanama
(v Zimbabwe on 08-04-1997), Marvan Atapattu (v India on 09-11-1998) and
Sanath Jayasuriya (v Pakistan on 15-10-1999) are the others to do so
for Sri Lanka.The victory margin of 123 runs is the sixth highest for any side at
Sharjah. Ironically the biggest win by runs margin at Sharjah has come
against Sri Lanka. West Indies defeated them by 193 runs on
03-12-1986.It was Sri Lanka's biggest win against any team at this venue. The
previous best was its 107 run victory against Bangladesh on
06-04-1995.The victory is also the biggest for Sri Lanka in a day-night match.
The previous best was its 115 run victory against Pakistan at Mohali
on 24-05-1997.It was the tenth occasion when Sri Lanka won and 11th occasion when
Zimbabwe lost a match by 100 or more runs and 116th such instance in
all ODIs.Sanath Jayasuriya won his 22nd Man of the Match award. 