DHAKA: Thirimane and Sangakkara tons helped Sri Lanka rout England by nine wickets in Pool A match of World Cup Sunday.

England 309/6 (50.0 ov), Sri Lanka 312/1 (47.2 ov). Sri Lanka won by 9 wickets (with 16 balls remaining).

Chasing England-set 310-run target Sri Lanka secure the huge victory after Thirimane and Sangakkara hit unbeaten 139 and 117 runs respectively.

Earlier, Joe Root’s century, 121, powered England to set the target.

Man of the Match Kumar Sangakkara said, “Credit should go to the openers. They had a great start. Thiri batted out of his skin. We were getting 5.5-6 an over throughout.”

“It was just a case of batting long. It is always imposing when someone scores 300. Joe Root batted beautifully, but then again there are days like this. Getting old. Quite quickly. Still enjoying the game [About retiring after the Cup]. Thiri has batted from No. 1 to No. 9 for us. To watch him get that hundred was quite special,” he added.

“Brilliant performance,” says Angelo Mathews. “310 was a bit too much but brilliant batting by Sangakkara and Thirimanne. Two of the greatest knocks I have seen. If the bowlers fail, the batters need to step up. That's what we want. Two of the areas we need to improve on is the fielding and bowling at the death.”

“We certainly lost it with the ball,” says Eoin Morgan. “We had a par score on the board. Joe Root batted beautifully. I was happy at half time. Sri Lanka had seven or eight overs where they bowled really well, but we ended well. We were happy with the score. We were flexible in our batting order, but we thought it was right to send James when he went in. Today we bowled a bad ball every over. Which you get punished for. We have got variations. two tall bowlers, two swing bowlers. When we are bowling well, it is a good attack. You can pick it apart when they are not. Today they didn't.”

** England set 310 target for Sri Lanka

BDST: 1158 HRS, MAR 01, 2015