Georgetown: Sanath Jayasuriya scored his third World Cup century and became the second highest scorer in one-day Internationals Sunday to help Sri Lanka compile a formidable 303 for five against the West Indies.

With the hosts needing a victory to effectively stay in the hunt for a semi-final spot, the Sri Lankans set Brian Lara’s team an imposing target in front of its own fans in Georgetown.

The Sri Lankans recovered well from a sticky start and Jayasuriya and skipper Mahela Jayawardene lifted the total from 35 for two with a stand of 183 for the third wicket.

Jayasuriya hit four sixes and 10 fours in his 101-ball 115, his 25th ODI hundred, to hush a big crowd at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence. Jayawardene made 82.

After earlier West Indies games had been played to half empty stadiums, fans turned out in force on Sunday and were heartened to see their bowlers remove two Sri Lankan batsmen early.

Daren Powell knocked two stumps out of the ground to bowl Upul Tharanga for eight with 18 runs on the board. Then Ian Bradshaw had Kumar Sangakkara caught behind on his fourth ball in the ninth over.

The West Indies bowlers initially kept the Sri Lankan scoring rate down and Jayasuriya and Jayawardene appeared to be struggling at 45 for two after 14 overs.

After only 18 runs had come off 44 balls, Jayasuriya then cut loose, hitting three fours in four balls off Bradshaw and Dwayne Smith and then lofting Smith for a driven six in a two-over onslaught that moved him from 14 to 41.

His 18 runs off the 18th over took him past Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul Haq as No. 2 in the all-time list of runs scored in ODIs behind India’s Sachin Tendulkar.

Jayasuriya now has 11,816 and Tendulkar has 14,847. Both have played 384 matches.

Jayasuriya was finally out when he played on to a ball from Powell in the 39th over and he was followed by Jayawardene.

After Smith had dropped a straightforward catch on the midwicket boundary, Jayawardene was yorked by Bravo and Sri Lanka was 251 for four with just under six overs to go.

Chamara Silva (23) miscued Ramnaresh Sarwan to Brian Lara at mid-on and Tillekaratne Dilshan finished unbeaten on 39 from 22 balls, benefiting from some sloppy West Indies fielding to get four on the penultimate ball and smashing a six to finish.