Kumar Sangakkara en route to his 80 during Sri Lanka’s qualifier against Zimbabwe in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. (AP)

Ahmedabad: Upul Tharanga slammed his second successive century as Sri Lanka trounced minnows Zimbabwe by 144 runs to secure a berth in the main round of the ICC Champions Trophy on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old Tharanga gave another fine exhibition of his batting skills to score a polished 130-ball 110 and steer his team to a competitive 285 for nine before the Lankan bowlers skittled out their unfancied opponents for 141 in a qualifying match at the Motera.

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene attributed the victory to Tharanga’s brilliant batting and the aggression of the bowlers.

“Upul batted brilliantly. And so did Kumar (Sangakkara) and Marvan (Atapattu) who has come back strongly. Now, other guys also have to get into the scene. In the last 10 ten games our batsmen have scored 11 hundreds and four of them have come from Upul’s blade. He batted brilliantly.”

He, however, expressed concern at conceding a large number of extras runs through no balls and extras.

The righthanded opener, who had struck 105 in the opening match against Bangladesh, notched up his sixth ODI century and continued his sequence of big scores in his brief 31-match career.

Sangakkara was the other notable performer with a 86-ball 80 and his 165-run third wicket partnership with Tharanga was the corner stone of the Lankan innings which could have gone well beyond the 300 mark but for some quick dismissals in the slog overs.

Brendan Taylor (30) and Hamilton Masakadza (30) provided a semblance of resistance for Zimbabwe before the innings folded up in 42.3 overs in what turned out to be a rather lop-sided contest.

The West Indies will also ensure a place in the main stage if they prevail over Bangladesh in a qualifying match in Jaipur Wednesday. In that case, the match between Sri Lanka and the West Indies in Mumbai on Saturday will determine which team goes into the main stage as the No. 1 qualifer.