Sri Lanka crushed the Netherlands in their final Round 1 encounter, to go into the Super 12 round unbeaten and high on confidence after 3 comprehensive wins. Here are the key talking points from the encounter.
Max O’Dowd’s run-out
Max O’Dowd was the in form Dutch batter coming into this game, with two half centuries in the games against Ireland and Namibia. As such, the responsibility of getting Netherlands to a respectable total sat squarely on his shoulders, especially since the batting unit had not clicked during the tournament.
Unfortunately for him, he ran himself out in the 1st over of the game, attempting a risky single to mid-off. No one else in the Dutch batting line-up was able to do the job he had done in the two previous games as they were bundled out for the 1nd lowest total in Men’s T20 World Cups.
Theekshana’s 1st over
Maheesh Theekshana has confused the batters left right and center during Round 1 and it was no different today. The youngster bowled just 1 over in the match, leaving the field as a precaution after feeling some discomfort in his side, but he had already done enough to dent the Dutch batting performance.
In his 1st over, the 3rd of the innings, he sent both Stephan Myburgh and Ben Cooper back to the pavilion, signaling the beginning of the end for the Dutch.
Unfortunately, he may be ruled out of Sri Lanka’s 1st Super 12 game against Bangladesh due to a side strain.
Hasaranga’s googlies
Wanindu Hasaranga has taken a back seat to Theekshana in the bowling department thus far in the tournament, but today, the wrist-spinner stunned the batsmen with his use of the googly. Picking him off the hand has proved difficult to even the best of batters and the looked lost as he trapped one after the other in front of the stumps.
He dismissed Colin Ackermann, who was looking in good touch, first – Ackermann was caught right in front but went for an optimistic review. Hasaranga then did the same to Bas de Leede in the same over, then dismissed captain Pieter Seelar, who made the cardinal sin of playing back to another googly.
Kumara’s pace
Lahiru Kumara’s pace was a topic of discussion once again in this game. The quick troubled the Dutchmen with his speed on his way to career best figures of 3 for 7 and the Player of the Match award.
One delivery rose up and banged into Scott Edwards’ helmet, fortunately, he seemed alright afterwards, but this also meant that the batters stayed on the backfoot to Kumara. This played right into his hands as he nailed three full deliveries in his next over to complete the innings, dismissing Edwards, Brandon Glover and Paul van Meekeren.
Kusal Perera gets valuable time in the middle
While Sri Lanka would probably have gone hammer and tongs at the target of 45 in the past, they took some time this time around.
Perhaps the thinking behind this was to give key top-order batter Kusal Perera sometime in the middle. The left-hander hasn’t been in form since his return from injury and yet again did not look at his best. He did however manage to stay unbeaten, ending up with 33 off 24.
No. 3 position remains up for grabs
Charith Asalanka was brought into the side to fix Sri Lanka’s issues at No. 3, but unfortunately, could not capitalize on the opportunity. He had the perfect setting to get some runs under his belt, with the result of the game all but decided when he came into bat, but looked rusty and couldn’t get any timing on the ball.
Both he and Dinesh Chandimal have failed in the position so far, so it will be interesting to see if Dhananjaya de Silva gets a look in or if the management will persist with Asalanka for the time-being.
