Pace bowler Lasith Malinga claimed six wickets - including a hat-trick - as Sri Lanka eased to a comfortable nine-wicket victory over Kenya in Group A.
Half centuries from brothers Collins and David Obuya had helped Kenya to 128-5 near the end of their innings.
But five wickets in 11 balls from Malinga dismissed the Tigers for 142 and gave the bowler figures of 6-38.
Sri Lanka breezed to their target thanks largely to Tillakaratne Dilshan (44) and Upul Tharanga (67 not out).
The last time these two met in the World Cup was in 2003, when Sri Lanka put aside security concerns to travel to Nairobi only to suffer a shock 43-run defeat.
However, Malinga ensured that such an outcome was never likely to repeat itself with an impressive opening salvo and a truly stunning final burst to blow away the Kenyan tail.
 | WORLD CUP HAT-TRICKS 1987: Chetan Sharma (India) v New Zealand 1999: Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan) v Zimbabwe 2003: Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) v Bangladesh 2003: Brett Lee (Australia) v Kenya 2007: Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka) v South Africa 2011: Kemar Roach (West Indies) v Netherlands 2011: Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka) v Kenya |
The unorthodox 27-year-old seamer - nicknamed "Malinga the Slinger" due to his unique round-arm action - had not featured in Sri Lanka's first two matches due to a back injury but quickly made up for lost time to serve warning that the co-hosts are still firmly in the hunt for the trophy after last Saturday's 11-run loss to Pakistan.
"It was important to come back from Saturday. We showed we are mentally strong and finished it off today," said Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara.
"We tried to stop as many runs as we could and keep them down so that the wickets would come at the end and Lasith as usual, the champion that he is, with the ball reversing, did a great job for us."
Malinga and fellow opener Nuwan Kulasekara had Kenya reeling at 8-2, with an lbw apiece to dismiss Tigers' opening pair Seren Waters and Maurice Ouma.
However, Kenya rallied under the stewardship of brothers Collins and David Obuya, who each overturned an lbw decision on review, from Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis respectively, during a resilient but slow-paced stand of 94.
Significantly, Kenya's resistance was forged during Malinga's absence from the attack but the pace bowler's return reaped immediate dividend as another quick and accurate yorker hammered into Collins Obuya's off stump to bring an end to his 52-run innings, amassed from exactly 100 balls.
Even with wickets in hand, Kenya never looked likely to post a competitive total, and the subsequent loss of Steve Tikolo (caught by Dilshan at point off Matthews) and David Obuya (who beat his brother's earlier 2011 World Cup slowest half century record by four balls before being caught by Thilan Samaweera off Muralitheran) stripped them of any momentum.
With Kenya 128-5, Malinga returned and subsequently destroyed the Tigers' tail with five wickets in 11 balls, all of which came courtesy of his near-unplayable inswinging yorker.
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