MUMBAI: Mahela Jayawardene scored a composed century to salvage the innings Saturday as Sri Lanka set India a challenging target of 275 to become the first nation to win the World Cup on home soil.

The 1996 champions made an uncharacteristically sluggish start after winning the toss, the top three misfiring for once in the tournament, against a disciplined and energetic Indian attack.

Zaheer Khan didn't concede a run in his first three overs and took a vital early wicket to put the Sri Lankans on the back foot, but was expensive toward the end when Jayawardene brought up his century with consecutive boundaries in the 48th over.

Sri Lanka reached 274-6 in 50 overs, with Thisara Perera pulling Zaheer for six on the final ball to finish unbeaten on 21 from nine balls. Jayawardene stroked 13 boundaries and finished with 103 from 88 balls after going to the crease with Sri Lanka at 60 for two.

Opener Tillakaratne Dilshan (33) and skipper Kumar Sangakkara (48) contributed at the top of the innings, while Nuwan Kulasekera (32) shared a valuable 66-run sixth-wicket stand with Jayawardene until he was run out in the 48th over chasing quick runs.

The Sri Lankans finished with a flourish after making their worst start of the tournament, crawling to 31 after 10 overs.

India started the match as favorite, but is now under pressure chasing a good total under lights as it pursues its first World Cup title since 1983.

The match started with some confusion when match referee Jeff Crowe ordered a second toss because he couldn't hear Sangakkara's call. After the second toss, a rarity in the international game, Sangakkara called correctly and was relieved to be batting first.

But Zaheer got India away to an ideal start, containing the Sri Lankan openers with three impeccable overs of seam bowling before he had Upul Tharanga (2) well caught by Virender Sehwag, diving to his right at a wide first slip, in the seventh over.

Sangakkara scored the first run off Zaheer to get off the mark on the next ball and settled into a 43-run stand with Dilshan to lift the sluggish early run rate and move the total to 60 before Harbhajan Singh broke through in the 17th over.

Dilshan took his tournament-leading tally to 500 runs before he attempted a sweep and played a ball onto his stumps from the inside of his arm. Sangakkara continued with Jayawardene and the pair was untroubled in a fluent 62-run stand, until the Sri Lankan skipper rocked back to cut Yuvraj Singh and only managed only to edge to Dhoni.

The key wicket of Sangakkara was a potential gamechanger. At 122-3 in the 28th over, India had done much of the hard work, removing three batsmen who were among the five leading scorers in the tournament. The fielding was energetic and polished, supplementing the generally tight bowling to keep the run-rate in check.

Sangakkara's 48 contained five boundaries and took him to second on the scoring list with 465 runs - just one ahead of Sachin Tendulkar, who is due to open the Indian innings and will be aiming to post his 100th international century to mark the marquee occasion.

Jayawardene was averaging 33.5 in his six previous World Cup innings, but the former captain always loomed as the batsman to take command of the middle order in case the top three went quickly.

He managed to finesse his way to 50 from 49 balls, with six boundaries in a scattering of areas as he either worked the ball through the gaps or manufactured ways to find the boundaries.

Then he accelerated as the Indian bowlers started to stray off line.

Yuvraj and Zaheer took their second wickets as the Sri Lankans slipped from 179-3 to 182-5.

Yuvraj convinced Dhoni to refer Simon Taufel's not out decision on an lbw appeal against Thilan Samaraweera (21) to the third umpire, who overturned the call when replays showed the ball would have gone on to hit middle stump.

Zaheer had Chamara Kapugedera (1) caught by Suresh Raina when he prodded forward at a slower ball. But after conceding just six runs in his first five overs, his figures blew out to 2-60 at the end. Yuvraj finished with 2-49. - AP

JEREZ (Spain): Casey Stoner of Australia took pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday, ahead of Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa and defending MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo.

Stoner rode around the 4.4-kilometer (2.7-mile) Jerez Circuit in 1 minute, 38.757 seconds.

Seven-time champion Valentino Rossi fell early on in the qualifying session and finished 12th.

Stoner won the season-opening Qatar GP last month.

The race is Sunday.