Highest opening partnerships in ODIs

#2 Upul Tharanga & Sanath Jayasuriya: 286 vs England, Leeds

Sage and carnage!

Back in the day when Twenty20 cricket had not taken off, there existed a thing in cricket such as scoreboard pressure. So when England hammered the Sri Lankan bowlers all over Headingley, it seemed as if the hosts would be able to prevent the embarrassment of a 5-0 whitewash in the fifth ODI of the series, having been outplayed in the first four.

Set 322 to win, Jayasuriya summoned his own destructive self to put on an exhibition for the ex-pat rich crowd as they cheered with their conch shells and drums every time he played his typical hoick that went seamlessly over point boundary. Tharanga was almost brushed out of the picture as Sri Lanka's favorite cricketer smoked the opening bowlers, Kabir Ali and Tim Bresnan, to leave them with combined figures of 8-0-101-0.

After 8 overs, Sri Lanka had 100 on the board and England, who earlier walked about smug and chipper, were sent crashing out of the contest in only a sixth of the overs they had prepared to defend their total in.

England's demoralization showed in the nine wides and the equal number of no-balls they bowled, clearly intimidated by the onslaught of Jayasuriya (152 off 99) and the impressive by second fiddle standards performance of Tharanga (109 off 102) as England were blanked 5-0 with the chase done and dusted in a little over 37 overs.