Pakistan's 11-run victory was the fourth in their previous 11 matches against Sri Lanka, but more importantly they maintained their 100% record against Sri Lanka in World Cup matches. Pakistan's fourth win in eight matches at the Premadasa Stadium puts them second on the list of visiting teams with the most wins against Sri Lanka at this venue.

Sri Lanka hardly had any useful partnerships in their innings while Pakistan managed quite a few, including the century stand between Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq for the fourth wicket. Pakistan made the most of the first ten overs, during which they scored 65, and the batting Powerplay - 36 runs. Sri Lanka scored 42 runs in the first ten overs, and were not aided in their big chase by an extremely slow innings by Chamara Silva, who scored his first 11 runs off 41 balls, and was eventually dismissed for 57 off 78 balls.

This was Sri Lanka's first defeat in a home World Cup game. In 1996, Australia and West Indies forfeited their games against Sri Lanka because of security issues in the country and Sri Lanka defeated Kenya and Zimbabwe. In their opening match of the 2011 tournament, Sri Lanka had defeated Canada by 210 runs.

Top ODI allrounder
Shahid Afridi produced yet another superb bowling display in the middle overs to give Pakistan the upper hand. He picked up the vital wickets of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews during his spell of 4 for 34. In the process, he took his 300th wicket in ODIs, becoming only the 11th bowler to do so.

He also became the second player after Sanath Jayasuriya to reach the milestone of 6000 runs and 300 wickets in ODIs. Afridi has been superb in ODIs since 2008, picking up 89 wickets at an average just over 31.

Another record for Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan, currently the record holder for most wickets in ODIs, surpassed Wasim Akram's tally of 55 wickets in World Cups becoming the second-highest wicket taker in the tournament. His tally is only behind Glenn McGrath's record of 71 wickets. In his first two World Cups, Muralitharan took only 13 wickets, but added 40 in the next two. His wicket tally was instrumental in Sri Lanka making the semi-final in 2003 and the final in 2007.

Woes of chasing teams in Colombo
The bad luck for chasing teams continued at the Premadasa Stadium, where they have won only five of the 25 matches played since 2005. The record is worse when the match is played under lights: only two out of 19 matches have been won by teams chasing. Among grounds that have hosted at least eight matches since 2005, the win-loss ratio for chasing teams is the worst at the Premadasa.