Opener Upul Tharanga stroked his second successive limited-overs century and spurred Sri Lanka to a 144-run victory Tuesday in a Champions Trophy qualifying match against Zimbabwe.

Boosted by Tharanga's smashing 110, Sri Lanka posted 285 for seven in 50 overs and then bundled out minnow Zimbabwe for 141 in 42.3 overs to stay on course for the main round of the ICC Champions Trophy.

Under the new tournament format, defending champion West Indies, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are playing the qualifying round-robin competition from which the two top teams will advance to the main round of the Champions Trophy beginning Oct. 17.

Sri Lanka had earlier defeated Bangladesh by 37 runs, while West Indies outplayed Zimbabwe by nine wickets.

Left-hander Tharanga, 21, followed his 105 in Saturday's game against Bangladesh and shared an innings-building partnership of 165 with Kumar Sangakkara, who made 80.

Tharanga struck 13 boundaries and also lofted pace bowler Tawanda Mupariwa for a straight six off 130 deliveries faced on way to his sixth hundred from 31 one-dayers.

That helped Sri Lanka overcome the early loss of opener Sanath Jayasuriya (9) and skipper Mahela Jayawardene (4).

Batting first after Jayawardene won the toss, Sri Lanka slumped to 49 for two after Jayasuriya was run out at the non-striker's end by a direct hit from Elton Chigumbura, and Jayawardene was caught behind chasing a wide delivery from paceman Anthony Ireland.

Sangakkara joined Tharanga to put Sri Lanka back in command, hitting seven boundaries off 86 balls during the prosperous partnership that forced Zimbabwe skipper Prosper Utseya to try eight bowlers.

Tharanga reached his triple figures by running three on a straight drive that saw Sangakkara survive a run-out chance returning for the third.

Attempting to hit out, Tharanga was clean bowled as he missed the line of a delivery from offspinner Stuart Matsikenyeri.

Matsikenyeri also featured in Sangakkara's dismissal, snapping an easy catch on the mid-off fence off the bowling of medium-pacer Justice Chibhabha.

Marvan Atapattu remained unbeaten on 33, but witnessed the cheap departure of Tillekeratne Dilshan (6), Farveez Maharoof (13) and Muttiah Muralitharan (10) as Sri Lanka failed to spur the scoring in the last 10 overs.

Leg-spinner Tafadzwa Kamungozi claimed 2-55 to emerge as the most successful Zimbabwe bowler.

Zimbabwe's batting woes continued as it got off to another poor start, losing Piet Rinke (1), Tafadzwa Mufambisi (5) and Chibhabha (4) with just 23 runs on the board.

Hamilton Masakadza (30) and Brendan Taylor (30) then produced composed knocks, putting on 63 runs for the fourth wicket before they fell in the space of four deliveries.

Taylor hit four boundaries off 40 deliveries before having his stumps dislodged by paceman Dilhara Fernando, while Masakadza was caught behind off seam bowler Farveez Maharoof three balls later. Masakadza had five hits to the fence.

Lower order batsmen Utseya and Mupaviwa each contributed 20, but Zimbabwe was never in the contest.

Sri Lanka's bowling honours were shared by pacer Lasith Malinga (3-25) and offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan (2-20).

© The Canadian Press, 2007