Sri Lanka won by nine wickets after Chaminda Vaas produced the best-ever bowling figures in a one-day international to dismiss Zimbabwe for a world record low of 38 in the first game of the LG Abans triangular series today.
In an unchanged spell of fast bowling at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground, left-armer Vaas snapped up eight for 19 from eight overs - the first eight batsmen to fall - after Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field.
Vaas performed the first one-day international hat trick by a Sri Lankan when he dismissed Zimbabwe captain Stuart Carlisle, Craig Wishart and Tatendra Taibu with the third, fourth and fifth balls of his sixth over.
It was seam bowling at its best with Vaas committing the batsmen to errors by bringing them onto the front foot.
Four of his victims fell leg before as he reproduced the form which helped him to take 14 wickets against the West Indies in the third test at the same venue earlier this week.
Vaas's brilliant spell saw him break team mate Muttiah Muralitharan's one-day international world record of seven for 30 against India at Sharjah in 2000-01.
Off-spinner Muralitharan picked up the last two wickets in Zimbabwe's innings in four balls.
Zimbabwe's innings lasted just 87 minutes and their all-out total of 38 off 15.4 overs surpassed the previous lowest in one-day internationals of 43 set by Pakistan against West Indies at Cape Town in 1992-93.
The West Indies are the third team in the one-day series in Colombo.