Malinga bowled at a lively pace under the Ahmedabad lights

Paceman Malinga took three wickets as the Zimbabweans were dismissed for 141.

"Malinga is something special, he's a guy with a big heart, always bowls quickly and he's come a long way from where he started," Jayawardene said.

"He never played one-day cricket early on because he wasn't that accurate but now he's bowling really well."

Jayawardene added: "The young fast bowlers are putting their hands up and showing what they're capable of - we have a lot of options in our attack."

Malinga struck after in-form opener Upul Tharanga made his second century in as many games - his fifth ODI ton in 2006 - to help Sri Lanka post 285-7.

Upul has been batting brilliantly in the last year Mahela Jayawardene

His partnership of 165 with Kumar Sangakkara transformed the innings after Sanath Jayasuriya and Jayawardene fell cheaply.

"Upul has been batting brilliantly in the last year and the good thing about him is how well he played under different conditions - in New Zealand, Australia and England," the skipper explained.

"He's maturing day by day and, overall, we played really good cricket.

"The wicket was slow and, the pace they bowled, it wasn't easy but our guys played really smart cricket, especially Upul and Kumar with their big partnership."

Bangladesh are the same sort of side as us and we're confident we can go home with a victory Stuart Matsikenyeri

Zimbabwe, who were skittled for 85 by West Indies on Sunday, were soundly beaten again.

But vice-captain Stuart Matsikenyeri drew some consolation from their fielding performance and believes they can end their qualifying campaign on a high against Bangladesh.

"We came out here looking to play positive cricket, which we did in bits, but not enough," he explained.

"The first half of the game was brilliant, we carried our plans through the way we wanted to, but we lost too many wickets at the wrong times.

"We have to tighten up for the next game. Bangladesh are the same sort of side as us and we're confident we can go home with a victory."