Jayawardene ends his ODI drought

Stats highlights from the third ODI between Sri Lanka and Pakistan

03-Aug-2009

Sri Lanka's comfortable six-wicket win in Dambulla sealed a 3-0 series win, their first in an ODI series at home against Pakistan in four attempts. They had lost in 1986, 1994 and 2006. Cricinfo looks at some of the stats highlights from the match.

The 202-run partnership between Mahela Jayawardene and Upul Tharanga is the third-highest for the first wicket for Sri Lanka in ODIs, and their highest at home. Their highest overall is 286, against England at Leeds in 2006. Of the five 200-plus opening stands for Sri Lanka, Tharanga has been involved in three. It's also Sri Lanka's first double-century opening stand without the presence of Sanath Jayasuriya.

Jayawardene's glorious 123 ended a barren run in ODIs: in his 17 previous ODI innings he had an average of 15.11, with one half-century and four ducks. This was also only his second ODI innings as an opener. In his previous effort - against Zimbabwe in Harare in November 2008 - he had failed to get off the mark.

Dambulla has traditionally been a difficult venue for batting, but in this game both Pakistan and Sri Lanka scored totals that hadn't been scored at this ground. In 28 previous ODIs in Dambulla, the highest score had been 282, by Sri Lanka against India in 2004. India chased it bravely, but fell short by 12 runs. Those were the two highest ODI totals here before today.

The win also ended a poor run for Sri Lanka in ODI series at home - they had lost their last three, against England and twice against India. (Click here for Sri Lanka's results in home ODI series.)

The pitch was so good for batting that even Muttiah Muralitharan leaked plenty of runs - in ten overs he conceded 64, which is the second-highest number of runs he has conceded in a home ODI. The highest is 66, against India earlier this year. In terms of economy rates, this comes in at third place among his most expensive spells at home. Click here for the full list.

It was also a bad game for Shahid Afridi, Pakistan's most consistent spinner. He leaked 7.50 runs per over, his most expensive spell in almost two years. Against India in Kanpur in November 2007, he had conceded 57 in seven, a rate of 8.14 per over. Since then, in 30 ODIs before this one, only twice did he concede more than six runs per over.

Muthiah Muralidaran Shahid Afridi Upul Tharanga Mahela Jayawardene Pakistan Sri Lanka Sri Lanka vs Pakistan Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka

S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo