Mohali, Oct. 7: Sri Lanka cruised to a 37–run win over an outmatched Bangladesh in their opening qualifying round match of the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy at the PCA Stadium here on Saturday night. Habibul Bashar gifted away the advantage of the toss when he decided to field, and the Bengal Tigers never got over that setback.

Needing to overhaul an imposing 302 to win, Bangladesh subsided to 265/9 with almost all of Mahela Jayawardene’s bowlers sharing in the spoils. Stumper Kumar Sangakkara added to the woes of the Tigers with a hand four dismissals.

There was also the statistical achievement of Muttiah Muralitharan moving into second place on the all-time list of ODI wicket-takers with his 417th scalp in his 277th game ahead of Pakistan pace ace Waqar Younis (416 in 262). Only Wasim Akram with 502 wickets in 356 matches remains ahead of the wily Sri Lankan tweaker.

Saqibul Hasan, all of 19, played a virtual lone hand with a maiden ODI half-century and an innings top score, the landmark coming from 95 deliveries and 130 minutes at the crease. Other than that, there were sparkling efforts here and there — Mashrafe Mortaza’s lusty hitting, Aftab Ahmed’s 31-ball 33, Farhard Reza’s 34 from 31 balls — but the batsmen were simply unable to cope with the task of chasing at six-plus runs an over for the full distance.

Earlier, Sri Lanka were powered to their imposing total by opener Upul Tharanga’s fifth career ODI century, and consistent partnerships up the order.

Having given away the advantage of the toss, Bashar needed his bowlers to be spot on but other than Mashrafe Mortaza early on, and thereafter left-arm spinners Mohammad Rafique (1/37) and Abdur Razzak (2/49), they could not respond to the task.

Seamers Syed Rasel and Farhar Reza and left-arm spinner Saqibal Hasan were expensive, going for unnecessary runs as the batsmen profited.

Sri Lanka began sedately enough with Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya putting on 67 by the 14th over when the latter was the recipient of a harsh decision from Darryl Harper. Syed Rasel’s delivery pitched well outside the line of off-stump bent back in and that was enough for the umpire to pull the trigger on Jayasuriya (31, 45b, 5 fours).

Tharanga then helped skipper Mahela Jayawardene (35, 24b, 6 fours, 1 six) put on 63 for the second wicket, and another 51 for the fourth with Kumar Sangakkara.

At this point, Sri Lanka were looking good for a 320-plus total, but some committed work in the field helped the Tigers pull matters back somewhat. From 243/3 in the 43rd over, the islanders slipped to 273/7 in the 48th, and only some hard running and streaky edges took them past the 300 mark.

Jayawardene and coach Tom Moody will also be please with the comeback from of Marvan Atapattu, playing his first active game in over six months. The former captain compiled a 42-ball 40 with some clever nudges and placements and the way he scampered for his runs seemed to show the back injury that had dogged him was now a thing of the past.

If that is so, he brings tremendous stability to an already solid lineup, and a warning for the bigger games to follow from next week.