Mahela Jayawardene’s unbeaten 115 was his ninth century in 246 ODIs. It was his second against New Zealand, first in 23 Cup matches and third as captain

Interestingly, Lanka have won every time Jayawardene has scored a hundred. His two scores of over-90 also led to Lankan wins. For the record, his highest ODI score in a losing effort was 86

Jayawardene’s unbeaten 115 is the best individual score in a World Cup semi-final. The other three to have hit centuries at this stage of the competition were England’s Graham Gooch (115 vs India in 1987), Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar (113* vs NZ in 1999) and India’s Sourav Ganguly (111* vs Kenya in 2003)

Jayawardene also became the 12th captain overall — and the second Lankan after Sanath Jayasuriya (120 vs NZ in 2003) — to record a Cup hundred

Jayawardene, who hardly distinguished himself in the previous two editions — 102 runs @ 25.50 in 1999 and 21 runs @ 3.00 in 2003 — has so far aggregated 529 runs @ 66.13 in the ongoing tournament

He also became the first captain to aggregate over 500 runs in a single edition. Australian Ricky Ponting was 20 short of that magic figure, going into Wednesday’s semi-final

Muttiah Muralidharan took his Cup tally to 53 wickets from 30 matches. Only two others — Pakistani Wasim Akram (55) and Australian Glenn McGrath (67) — have over 50 victims in the competition

The 59 runs James Franklin and Jeetan Patel put on was the fifth half-century partnership for the last wicket in Cup history

Interestingly, this was the first 50-plus partnership for the last wicket in any ODI on Caribbean soil. The previous best was the 44 put on by Englishmen Robert Croft and Angus Fraser in Port of Spain, in April 1998

Patel’s 34 equalled the best score by an NZ No. 11 in ODIs. Chris Pringle had made an unbeaten 34 against the West Indies in Nov. 1994, in Guwahati

NZ were left wondering when they’ll play a World Cup final after losing their fifth semi-final on Tuesday. Following is the list of their semi-final flop shows:

1975 — lost to WI by 5 wkts at The Oval

1979 — lost to Eng by 9 runs in Manchester

1992 — lost to Pak by 4 wkts in Auckland

1999 — lost to Pak by 9 wkts in Manchester

2007 — lost to Lanka by 81 runs in Kingston

Sri Lanka’s second final entry meant that at least one team from the subcontinent has reached the title round since the 1992 meet. Pakistan beat England in the 1992 final, Sri Lanka beat Australia in 1996, Pakistan lost to Australia in 1999 and India lost to Australia in 2003