A brilliant century by Mahela Jayawardene aided by the rain gods ensured Sri Lanka were well on their way to the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup 2010 after they beat Zimbabwe via the Duckworth & Lewis method. Set an imposing 174 to win, the Zimbabwean chase was twice interrupted by rain at the end of the first and fifth over. With no play possible after the second interruption and the minimum of five overs to constitute a match being bowled, Zimbabwe finished 14 runs short on 29/1. It was sadly game over for the giant slayers from Africa.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat in a must win Group B game for them at Providence Stadium in Guyana. The pitch was expected to get slower and lower as the game progressed which prompted Skipper Kumar Sangakkara to bat first hoping his batsmen would put up a bigger total than the one against New Zealand, which they narrowly failed to defend. Zimbabwe, playing in their first game of the tournament, were coming off confidence boosting wins against Australia and defending champions Pakistan in their warm up games.

The 2010 ICC World Cup T20 was off to the perfect start when two cricketing power houses - Sri Lanka and New Zealand - dished out a nerve wracking affair at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. The Kiwis won the match on the day after a good bowling performance that restricted Sri Lanka to only 135/6 in their allotted 20 overs. The successful chase from the New Zealanders was riddled with twists and turns as wickets and runs abounded in liberal proportions to keep the onlookers hooked on to the action in the centre.

Sri Lanka batted first and had Mahela Jayawardene to thank for their respectable score of 135/6. The classical Jayawardene stroked the ball to all corners of the ground with clinical precision during his breezy knock of 81 from 51 balls. Barring some help from debutant Dinesh Chandimal (29), Jayawardene played the lone hand as others struggled on the slow and low pitch. In reply, the Kiwis looked in control initially with Jesse Ryder and Martin Guptill consolidating the innings after the early loss of Brendon McCullum. However wickets at regular intervals saw the Kiwis dig themselves a hole as they needed 41 runs from the last 4 overs. A couple of lusty hits from Jacob Oram and a breezy cameo (16 runs from 6 balls) from Nathan McCullum saw New Zealand win by 2 wickets with a ball to spare.

South Africa scored an exciting five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka with three balls to spare in their opening practice match at Kensington Oval on Wednesday in preparation for the ICC World Twenty20.

Both sides rested a number of players who had been involved in the Indian Premier League. The Sri Lankans were without three key bowlers in Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis while the Proteas gave Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, Albie Morkel and JP Duminy a break. All four were involved in the semi-final stage of the IPL.

The third edition of the ICC World Twenty20 gets underway in the West Indies on the 30th of April, and will feature 12 teams competing for the crown of World T20 champions. These include all 9 test playing nations, returning African stars Zimbabwe, Asia's latest cricketing discovery Afghanistan and Ireland.

World champions Pakistan are predictably the top seeds, followed by last season's losing finalists Sri Lanka. They head Group A and B respectively. Last year's two losing semi-finalists South Africa and West Indies are seeded 3rd and 4th respectively and are at the top of Groups C and D respectively. England, India, New Zealand and Bangladesh are seeded 5th to 8th and have been allotted in that order from Group D to A.

The ICC today announced the schedule of warm-up matches to be played in the lead-up to the ICC World Twenty20 2010 to be staged in the West Indies from 30 April to 16 May.

With just 16 days to go before the first match takes place in Guyana on 30 April, both the men's and women's teams will play a series of warm-up matches against either other competing teams or host XIs where a competing team is not available.

Former Sri Lanka captain and middle-order batsman Mahela Jayawardene is keeping his options open on the favourite for this year's ICC World Twenty20 West Indies 2010 which begins in Guyana on 30 April.

"I've always felt that Twenty20 cricket is pretty open. I don't think there're any favourites and I think all the teams competing in the tournament have a pretty good chance. With regards to Sri Lanka, it is a format we enjoy playing as we, as a side, get a chance to express ourselves more freely," said Jayawardene.

"We did have great success in England but I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves. This tournament is going to be another tough challenge and we need to start anew, take each game as it comes but try to go one better and win the tournament. I think we've got a really good, young and talented group of players. I think if we can get everyone together and perform, our chances are pretty good," continued the 32-year-old.

All 12 men's squads for the ICC World Twenty20 2010 have now been confirmed with the very best players in the world all getting ready for the big event, which gets underway in the West Indies later this month.

Defending champion Pakistan will be led by Shahid Afridi and features a strong line-up that includes the experience of Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammed Asif, Abdul Razzaq and Umar Gul along with the burgeoning talents of Umar Akmal, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammed Aamer.