Dhananjaya de Silva made a crucial 93 while Maheesh Theekshana starred with ball with his three-fer as Sri Lanka survived a huge scare from the Netherlands to register a tight 21-run win in their first Super Six match of Men’s ODI World Cup Qualifiers at the Bulawayo Sports Club, here on Friday.
Netherlands’ new-ball bowlers bowled with a lot of discipline and precision to reduce Sri Lanka to 96/6 in 25.1 overs. But that’s when Dhananjaya showed application and played as per the situation, while hitting eight fours and two sixes in his 93 off 111 balls.
He also stitched crucial partnerships with Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga to take Sri Lanka’s total to 213 in 47.4 overs. In defence of the total, Sri Lanka removed Netherlands batters at regular intervals.
Despite captain Scott Edwards scoring an unbeaten 67 under pressure, Netherlands were bowled out for 192 in 40 overs, giving Sri Lanka a nervy win and taking the 1996 World Cup winners to top of table in the Super Six stage.
Electing to bat first, Sri Lanka lost Pathum Nissanka on the very first ball, with Logan van Beek having him slice uppishly to point. Sri Lanka lost more wickets in power-play as Ryan Klein trapped Kusal Mendis lbw for 10, while van Beek removed Sadeera Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka.
Dimuth Karunaratne tried to resurrect Sri Lanka’s innings through a budding 33-run fifth-wicket stand with Dhananjaya de Silva, but nicked behind off Saqib Zulfiqar in the 18th over as Sri Lanka lost half their side for 67.
De Silva was the lone man standing for Sri Lanka as Dasun Shanaka too fell cheaply. From there, he was judicious in his shot selection to bring up his 10th ODI fifty. Hasaranga showed some promise with a couple of lofty blows but was trapped lbw by Bas de Leede in the 33rd over.
De Silva continued to up the ante, smashing a six and a couple of fours in one Shariz Ahmad over. He took Sri Lanka’s score past the 200-run mark but fell just seven runs short of a hundred, after being dismissed by Aryan Dutt, as Sri Lanka were eventually bowled out for 213 in the 48th over, making it their second lowest total against an Associate team.
In reply, Netherlands suffered early setbacks in chasing 214, losing their openers Vikramjit Singh and Max O’Dowd for ducks. Wesley Barresi and Bas de Leede added 77 runs for the third wicket, with the former getting his 7th ODI fifty in the process.
But after Barresi was run out, Theekshana and Hasaranga picked wickets at regular intervals to peg Netherlands back. But captain Scott Edwards refused to go down without a fight, sharing crucial stands with the lower-order to give his team hope of a miraculous victory. But he was left stranded on 67 not out as Netherlands fell 21 runs short of getting over the line.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 213 in 47.4 overs (Dhananjaya de Silva 93, Dimuth Karunaratne 33; Logan van Beek 3/26, Bas de Leede 3/42) beat Netherlands 192 in 40 overs (Scott Edwards 67 not out, Wesley Barresi 52; Maheesh Theekshana 3/31, Wanindu Hasaranga 2/53) by 21 runs.
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