page_title: History of the Sri Lankan cricket team
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Sri Lankan cricket team / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: Sinhalese Sports Club Ground Colombo Sri Lanka. Photo is copyright free and was taken by Paddy Briggs during the Sri Lanka v England Test match at the ground in March 2001.
context_page_description: The History of the Sri Lanka national cricket team began with the formation of the Colombo Cricket Club in 1832. By the 1880s a national team, the Ceylon national cricket team, was formed which began playing first-class cricket by the 1920s. The Ceylon national cricket team had achieved associate member status of the International Cricket Council in 1965. Renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, the national team first competed in top level international cricket in 1975, when they played against West Indies during 1975 Cricket World Cup; West Indies won the match by 9 wickets at the Old Trafford, Manchester, England.
  After Sri Lanka awarded Test status on 21 July 1981 as eighth Test playing nation, they had to wait until 6 September 1985, where Sri Lanka recorded their first Test win by beating India, in the second match of the series by 149 runs at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo. As of 10 July 2018, Sri Lanka have played 272 Test matches; they have won 86 matches, lost 101 matches, and 85 matches were drawn. They have also won the 2001-02 Asian Test Championship, defeating Pakistan in the final by an innings and 175 runs.
context_section_description: On 14 June 2000, Sri Lanka played their 100th match against Pakistan on 14 June 2000. They played this match at SSC, Colombo under the leadership of Sanath Jayasuriya. Pakistan won the watch by 5 wickets.
  They have also won the 2001-02 Asian Test Championship, defeating Pakistan in the final by an innings and 175 runs.
  2000 Asia Cup
  The seventh Asia Cup tournament was held in Bangladesh. All four subcontinent cricketing nations were participated, where Sri Lanka was led by Sanath Jayasuriya. In the first match against Bangladesh, skipper Jayasuriya won the toss and elected to bowl first where Chaminda Vaas took two quick wickets. For Bangladesh, Javed Omar scored an unbeaten 85, even though they ended up only 175 in their allotted 50 overs. Sri Lanka achieved the target in 31st overs with 96 runs came off the bat of Aravinda. In the second match, skipper Jayasuriya scored brilliant 105 runs and posted 278 on the board. Sachin Tendulkar scored 93 runs in the chase, but was not enough for the win. Sri Lanka won the match by 71 runs. Against Pakistan, Sri Lanka scored only 192 runs and lost the match by 7 wickets. Pakistan won the tournament beating Sri Lanka by 39 runs in the final by 35 runs. Marvan Atapattu scored his fourth hundred in his 96th match and became the third highest ODI century maker for Sri Lanka.
  2003 Cricket World Cup
  2003 Cricket World Cup was moved to the African continent, where South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya hosted the tournament. Sanath Jayasuriya led the team. The team was grouped in Pool B with South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, Bangladesh, Canada and Kenya. The first match was against New Zealand, where Blackcaps captain Stephen Fleming won the toss and sent Sri Lanka in to bat first. Sri Lanka's opening batsmen- Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu were going strong and kept a steady run rate until the fifth over when they conceded their first wicket. Skipper Jayasuriya dominated the Blackcaps bowling attack by scoring 120 runs. The final score at the end of the innings was 272/7. The second innings didn't start very well for New Zealand, losing their opening batsman, Nathan Astle, in the first over and captain Flemming in the second. The first real form of excitement came for New Zealand supporters when Styris and Cairns start hitting a few boundaries. Scott Styris overpassed Jayasuriya's batting by his 141 runs, but New Zealand all out for 217 in the total. Sri Lanka won by 47 runs and Jayasuriya was named man of the match.
  Next match was against Bangladesh, where Chaminda Vaas became the only bowler to claim a hat tricks in the first three balls of any form of international cricket when he took the first three wickets off the opening three balls of the match. With this feat, Vaas became the third of only four players to have achieved two hat tricks. Bangladesh poorly scored 124/10. Sri Lankan opening batsmen reached the target without a wicket falling. At the very next match against Canada, Sri Lanka again involved for a World record, where Canada total of 36 was the lowest total in World Cup history and lowest in all ODIs. Sri Lanka comfortably won the match by 9 wickets.
  All these World Record matches next became a desperate sad for all the Sri Lankans. They lost the match to underdog Kenyans for the first time. The match was at Kenyan soil, Kenya batted first and scored 201 runs courtesy of 60 runs by Kennedy Otieno. Murali took 4 wickets and Vaas with 3 wickets. Sri Lanka came to bat, only Aravinda scored 41 runs. All the others scored less than 30. Sri Lanka all out for just 157 runs in 45 overs. This was the first time that, Sri Lanka lost a match to an affiliate nation. Against West Indies, Sri Lanka back in the game, where they won by 6 runs despite Ramnaresh Sarwan heroics. Last group match was against South Africa, Sri Lanka batted first and scored 268/9. South Africa was at 229/6 when rain came. According to Duckworth–Lewis method, the match was tied. Finally, Sri Lanka reached top of the Pool B, and selected for the quarterfinals.
  In the quarterfinals, they suffered heavy losses t
caption: Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lankan captain between 2002 and 2005, scored three centuries, including 201 not out against England, at the Sinhalese Sport Club Ground in March 2001
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