Sri Lanka won the match against the Netherlands with 8 wickets in hand on the back of Lahiru Kumara who provided a solid performance with the bowl after taking 3 crucial wickets to cement Sri Lanka at the top of the table for qualifying in super 12s.
Sri Lanka had won the toss and decided to bowl first. The Netherlands didn’t get an ideal start of their innings as they lost their first wicket on the very first over of the innings.
Their batters look rusty against the spinners and lost so much ground early that they couldn’t make much of a mark against the pacers either.
After the power play, the men in orange went on to 37-6 and were in total trouble.
Netherland wanted someone to provide the resistance and took them out of that trouble.
But all their batters failed one after the other because none of them could stay on the pitch for long. All their hopes break down when they kept losing wickets.
The Netherlands had just set a total of 44 runs on the board at the end of their innings.
The total just wasn’t enough. Sri Lanka also lost its first wicket very early. Perera was in good touch and he hit a couple of delightful shots.
He took responsibility and played sensibly for his team. His cameo of 33 runs helped Sri Lanka to stand on the winning side.
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Sri Lanka is almost certain to finish top of the tables ahead of Namibia, who shocked Ireland in the first match of the day to book their super 12 spots, barring a heavy defeat in this match.
Sri Lanka won the match with 8 wickets in hand and cemented their position on the top of the table for the qualifier round of Super 12s.
“The bowler was executing well. A real good performance from all of us. Very good bowling side, I didn’t bowl in the qualifier at all, and Charith Asalanka can also bowl. We read the conditions well, so we know the advantages and disadvantages going forward (in the Super 12s),”
said the winning captain, Dasun Shanaka.
“Pretty simple, Sri Lanka just outplayed us. Outplayed the whole group. Fair credit to them, they were two steps ahead. We’ve got a South Africa series in November and Afghanistan in January (for ODIs). We’ve to go back to the drawing board a bit. The pacers came out with a bit of good heat, good aggression. Leading run-scorer run out in the first over doesn’t help, pretty much set the tone for the innings,”
said the losing captain, Pieter Sealer.
“He’s crediting bowling coach Chaminda Vaas for his showing. Says the team is going well and they want to continue that rhythm,”
said the player of the match, Lahiru Kumara.
Brief scores: Netherlands 44 in 10 overs (M Theekshana 2-3, Lahiru Kumara 3-7, W Hasaranga 3-9) lost to Sri Lanka in 45/2 in 7.1 overs (Kusal Perera 33*) by eight wickets.
