MUMBAI // Muttiah Muralitharan, the off-spinner, ignored a hamstring problem as he picked up four wickets to propel Sri Lanka to a thumping 112-run win over New Zealand in their final World Cup Group A match yesterday.
The win catapulted the co-hosts, who were playing away from home for the first time in the tournament, to the top of the group, but their final position will be determined only after today's match between Australia and Pakistan.
The two sessions at the Wankhede Stadium were dominated by two of Sri Lanka's most experienced cricketers - the captain, Kumar Sangakkara, and Muralitharan, who made life uncomfortable for the Kiwis despite picking up a hamstring injury which forced him off the field for a while.
"I dived and got injured a little bit," said Muralitharan, 38. "I strained a hamstring. It's not a big tear, maybe a small one, but it was a discomfort." He said he picked up the injury while batting.
His captain was keeping his fingers crossed that the injury did not rule out cricket's most prolific bowler from the knock-out stages.
"We've got a few days … hopefully he can be fully fit within that time period," Sangakkara said. "We've had guys with injuries before and we managed to fix them up pretty quickly. Hopefully we will have him again for the quarter-finals. He needs to play. This is his last World Cup. We enjoy playing with him, he wins a lot of matches for us. What he does really well is bowl, and take wickets, so we just want him to do that."
Sangakkara (111) led from the front by scoring his first World Cup century to rescue his team after some early jitters and set New Zealand a 266-run target.
The Sri Lankan spinners, led by Muralitharan (four for 25), made sure that the New Zealand batsmen never found their footing to launch a fitting reply.
On a track that offered a bit of turn, Muralitharan foxed the batsmen by mixing his sharp off-spinners with the occasional "doosras".
New Zealand failed to read his line and length and were skittled for just 153 in 35 overs, with seven wickets going to the spinners.
Earlier, the left-handed Sangakkara braved sweltering heat and humidity to reach his 11th ODI hundred and added 145 runs for the third wicket with Mahela Jayawardene after Sri Lanka were tottering at 19 for two.
Tim Southee, with three for 63, was the most successful New Zealand bowler as Sri Lanka ended their innings at 265 for nine after opting to bat first.
Jayawardene (66) provided able support with some cheeky hits to the fence after the islanders lost openers Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan cheaply.
