The hope was that this match would cap Zimbabwe cricket's turnaround.

Instead it served as a lesson that turning around an ailing game that was close to rock bottom just 18 months ago will take longer than a single successful season. The hosts were put firmly in their place as a strong Sri Lankan side romped to a nine-wicket victory in Harare.

Chasing 200 to win the Micromax Cup and take some momentum into next Tuesday's Asia Cup opener against Pakistan, Tillakaratne Dilshan (108 not out) and Upul Tharanga (72) hammered a 160-run opening partnership before Dinesh Chandimal helped his skipper finish the job off in just 34.4 overs.

Zimbabwe had instilled belief in their supporters by winning three of their four group matches, including an eight-wicket victory over these same opponents just two days ago, but all of those came over second-string teams. With Sri Lanka restoring their best possible side from the admittedly weakened squad at their disposal, this was a different ball game altogether.

Nuwan Kulasekara, Angelo Mathews and Ajantha Mendis all returned, taking the number of players who could realistically expect to play in a Sri Lankan first XI up to seven. Hence it was no great surprise that a resurgent Zimbabwe found their level.

From the first ball it was clear that Sri Lanka's intensity was far greater than it had been on Monday, with Kulasekara bowling with metronomic accuracy and the bustling Dilhara Fernando producing arguably the tournament's quickest spell up front.

Zimbabwe had relied on solid starts from the opening batsmen in their last two victories, but found themselves 29 for 2 after nearly ten overs as Hamilton Masakadza was caught behind and the in-form Brendan Taylor was cleverly set up, with the deployment of a wide gully leading to his downfall.

Craig Ervine was run out shortly afterwards as the pressure created by some stingey bowling and slick fielding mounted up, but Tatenda Taibu and Greg Lamb united in a 90-run stand for the fourth wicket. The duo slowly increased the run rate towards four per over as Taibu in particular showed his experience in maneuvering the ball around the field.

Yet just as it looked as if he'd laid the platform for a late surge the wicketkeeper-batsman threw it all away, cutting a short ball tamely to point to depart for a hard-earned 71. That sparked the sort of collapse that had threatened to arrive early on, as Elton Chigumbura chipped Ajantha Mendis straight to cover for just 10 and Lamb (37) was bowled by Jeevan Mendis trying to slog over midwicket.

Charles Coventry briefly threatened to throw in the sort of aggressive innings that was required for Zimbabwe to claw their way to a competitive total, but was caught at long-on for 18 from 12 balls attempting another big shot. From there on the innings unraveled in no time at all, and when last man Chris Mpofu was run out by Dilshan, Sri Lanka were set a target that was at least 60 runs short of par.

With that in mind Zimbabwe's seamers needed to be on the spot from ball one, but the lanky Mpofu bowled too short and Chigumbura too wide. With Dilshan and Tharanga in good form, it didn't take long before the game was beyond Zimbabwe as Sri Lanka's aggressive opening pair thrashed the bad balls to the boundary.

Zimbabwe's spinners had generally been able to pull things back when the seamers fell apart, but with no scoreboard pressure on the batsmen the job was beyond them and the afternoon slipped into the lethargic lull that accompanies a romp to the inevitable.

Although Tharanga wasn't able to take his side to the most convincing win possible as he was run out after a mix-up, Dilshan went to his seventh ODI hundred - his first against Zimbabwe - shortly before the match was sewn up.

Tristan Holme in Harare