148-5 - Wicket! Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first piece of boundary catching brilliance in the tournament. Lamb lofted one up and Mathews looked for all money to have cleared deep midwicket only for Craig Ervine to leap up and take the ball with both hands way above his head. What was most remarkable was that he landed with such balance when it looked like his momentum would take him over the boundary. Mathews pulled off one like that in last year's tournament but looks disbelieving. Of course none of that prevents Jayawardene from grabbing consecutive fours later in the over with some sublime ingenuity.
137-4 - Cremer has been impressive so far, but at the beginning of this over you know he's about to be tested because it's time for Sri Lankia to get a move on. Sure enough Jayawardene gets hold of the first one and deposits it over cow corner, before dabbing the second deftly past short fine leg for a couple. An easy pick-up off leg stump results in four more behind square on the leg side.
124-4 - Jayawardene has been slowed by some decent bowling and the regular loss of batting partners, but these two are clearly setting themselves for a final push. At the current rate they'll end up with 170 but if they both stick around then 190 is certainly on the cards.
117-4 - As a full-on wrist spinner, Cremer is getting more turn than the other spinners and he's also giving the ball plenty of flight. Even in this sort of form Jayawardene isn't willing to take him on so it's another cheap over.
113-4 - Lamb is replaced by Utseya, and second ball of the over he drops the simplest of chances at long-on to hand Chandimal a life. The batsman makes full use of it by coming down the pitch when he's back on strike to hammer Utseya back over his head for six. Wicket! His happy-go-lucky approach finally catches up to him though as he holes out to long-off from the final ball of the over. In between all of that Jayawardene played an exquisite cut shot, crouching in his stance to angle it away just behind square.
100-3 - Wicket! Graeme Cremer measures out his run-up by leaving nothing to chance - rather than taking steps, he measures it out putting one heel in front of the other toe. After starting with a wide the legspinner strikes, and it's a fairly soft dismissal - he started with a long-hop which Sangakkara tried to pull but instead got a top edge straight to short fine leg. The rest of the over is much better than the first two deliveries, and Dinesh Chandimal and Jayawardene pay it due respect.
94-2 - Jayawardene gets a couple in the slot but can't find the boundary as deep midwicket gets round to cut both of them off. There's also a cheeky late cut that he gets away fine for a couple more, so the scoreboard continues to tick over quite comfortably.
86-2 - Utseya is proving he's learnt a lot since coming into the side at an early age. He's giving the ball plenty of flight, and although there's not much turn he's bowling nice and straight to limit the batsmen's options. Nevertheless Sri Lanka look on track for 160-plus, which on this pitch is a big score.
80-2 - Wicket! Perera decides he's not going to dally about - it's all or nothing. He comfortably clears long-on with his first attempt, but his second is flatter hit and Chigumbura runs around from cow corner to puch a very good catch on the boundary. That brings Sangakkara to the crease, and Zimbabwe will know this a partnership they need to break early.
73-1 - The skipper Utseya comes on, and a fumble from Masakadza at long-on allows Perera to pinch a second. Jayawardene clips out to deep midwicket for a single to bring up a superb half-century (27 balls, 6x4s, 3x6s), but Utseya's done well to limit the batsmen to singles in this over.
67-1 - Greg Lamb joins the attack, and his right-arm offspin almost seems to stick in the surface as he racks up three dot balls to Perera. The pressure builds, but Perera gets out of jail with a swipe over long-off that clears Mpofu by a single yard. Sri Lanka speeding along at 9.57 runs per over.
59-1 - Price continues into a third over, which makes sense as he has the most control among Zimbabwe's spinners and is thus best equipped to bowl during the field restrictions. He's punished for bowling short though as a relaxed looking Jayawardene pulls over midwicket for four. Perera then gets in on the act, leaning back to hit through the offside for his first boundary. You have to win the big moments at this level, and that run-out chance in the last over might well have been Zimbabwe's big chance in this match given the pace at which Sri Lanka are scoring.
49-1 - Jayawardene hits the first ball for six, and you'll struggle to find a finer shot than this. He just eased down the track and drove elegantly over wide long-off with hardly a hint of effort at all. He was nearly out two balls later though as Perera clipped to shirt fine leg - Coventry's shy at the stumps was marginally wide with Jayawardene well short. That might be the only way they'll stop him, because the nature of his second and third boundaries of the over - both placed as if he has all the time in the world - suggest a man on top of his game.
33-1 - Zimbabwe are clawing things back here, with new batsman Thissara Perera relying on a leg-bye to get off strike as Price keeps it straight. Some good fielding helps Zimbabwe's cause, with Charles Coventry making a good stop at backward point.
29-1 - Wicket! Zimbabwe strike, but in truth they would rather have dismissed Jayawardene than Dilshan. The latter has been in poor form - nothing like what he enjoyed in 2009 - and as he takes on Elton Chigumbura's first delivery he just lofts the ball up for mid-off to run back and claim the catch. He looks a confused man as he sits down unhappily on the bench back in the dugout. Tatenda Taibu saves four runs by flinging himself to his left as a deft chip from Jayawardene is stopped, but the batsman gets his boundary when Chigumbura digs the next one in and sees it helped on its way over the vacant slip region.
24-0 - And indeed Price comes in to bowl from around the wicket. The boundaries are big, so it will take some good hitting to clear them without any pace on the ball and the batsmen resort to singles for the most part. Price gets one to trouble Dilshan as it darts in, hits bat and pad and then just misses off stump, but then Jayawardene keeps Sri Lanka on the front foot with a towering six over square leg.
14-0 - The conch shells sound around the ground as the lanky Mpofu bounds in and starts with a bouncer. That was a good delivery but his second is awful: short and wide and dispatched over point for four by Jayawardene, who then strolls down the pitch to the next delivery, easy as you like, to stroke it back over the bowler's head for six. The final delivery swings a touch, but Jayawardene gets across his stumps to flick it wide of mid-on for four more. Back to the drawing board for Zimbabwe, who will surely turn to spin now.
Zimbabwe opened the bowling with spin during their recent one-day series in the Caribbean, but Chris Mpofu will bowl the first over to Mahela Jayawardena and Tillakaratne Dilshan.
They're being tooted out as I type, so we'll be underway shortly. As you can see below, Zimbabwe have gone in with four spinners - Lamb, Utseya, Price and Utseya - while Sri Lanka will ask Jayasuriya and Dilshan to lend a hand to full time spinners Mendis and Randiv.
Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakarra, Dinesh Chandimal, Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Mathews, Sanath Jayasuriya, Thissara Perera, Suraj Randiv, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis
Brendon Taylor, Hamilton Masakadza, Tatenda Taibu, Craig Ervine, Elton Chigumbura, Charles Coventry, Greg Lamb, Graeme Cremer, Propser Utseya, Ray Price, Chris Mpofu
We're just waiting for the team news to filter through, but you can expect plenty of spin in this match. While the St Lucia track was a decent batting wicket, Guyana has been much slower and Ian Bishop says this pitch will get even slower as the match wears on. Although they're missing Muralitharan, Sri Lanka still have several spinners who could strangle Zimbabwe in the chase.
Kumar Sangakkara has come up trumps, and Sri Lanka will bat first. Prosper Utseya says he might consider opening with two spinners.
Welcome to over-by-over coverage of Sri Lanka versus Zimbabwe. Could be a bit of a tasty one, this. Sri Lanka have lost the services of Muttiah Muralitharan for the duration of the tournament, which is a rough development for them given that the Providence pitch has been well suited to spinners. They must win today to keep their Super Eight hopes alive, but come up against a revived Zimbabwe outfit who beat Australia and Pakistan in the warm-ups and have plenty of useful spinners. Could this be the first upset of the tournament?