Mahela Jayawardene's Sri Lanka smashed the record score in Twenty20 internationals to trounce Kenya by 172 runs at the Wanderers.
Jayawardene's men piled up a gargantuan 260 for six after being asked to bat first by the African minnows in the World Twenty20 contest and powered their way past Australia's previous high of 221 for six against England in Sydney earlier this year.
Master blaster Sanath Jayasuriya savaged 88 from only 44 balls and Jayawardene scored at an even quicker rate, his ability to execute elegant strokes powerfully reaping 65, off only 27 deliveries.
Yet they were outdone by a spectacular cameo from Jehan Mubarak, who struck five sixes and three fours to reach 46 from a dozen balls.
One more boundary would have obliterated Mohammad Ashraful's record for the fastest half-century, a 20-ball effort against West Indies yesterday, but he missed the final delivery of the innings, sent down by Peter Ongondo, completely.
Medium-pacer Lameck Onyango took the brunt of the punishment as left-hander Mubarak peppered the stands between midwicket and long-on to hit four sixes in the penultimate over, which cost 29 runs.
In response the Kenyans barely got out of first gear and only managed five boundaries in the entire innings of 88, to emphasise the huge gulf in class.
The crushing Group B victory sends the Sri Lankans, sporting their new silver limited-overs kit, into the second round alongside tomorrow's opponents New Zealand with Kenya, semi-finalists in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, heading home having been thrashed by both.
Sri Lanka now hold the highest scores in all three forms of international cricket, adding the Twenty20 peak to their Test and one-day records.
"We played some smart cricket, it was crucial for us in the first few overs not to lose too many wickets," said captain Jayawardene, referring to his side's relatively moderate start of 40 for one after five overs.
"We managed to keep it down to just one and then we batted really well.
"If you lose too many wickets you can dig yourself into a hole but we had wickets in hand and were able to accelerate.
"Mubarak batted brilliantly, I haven't seen him do that for a while, so that was really good."
Veteran Jayasuriya took the man-of-the-match award, however, and Kenyan captain Steve Tikolo admitted: "After winning the toss we should have done better than we did today.
"When you come up against a team like Sri Lanka and the likes of Sanath you have to be on the money."
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