Sri Lanka earn first Cricket World Cup win after chasing down Netherlands
Sri Lanka beat the Netherlands by five wickets with 10 balls to spare on Saturday to become the final team to claim a hard-fought victory at the World Cup.
Chasing 263 for victory, Sadeera Samarawickrama stood firm once again to anchor the chase with a patient 91 off 107 balls to add to his century against Pakistan as the island nation wrapped up the contest in the 49th over.
“I’m really happy to finish the game for my team, we needed a win, we haven’t done well in the last three games,” said Samarawickrama, who was named player of the match in Lucknow.
“When I went in the wicket wasn’t easy ... the fast bowlers bowled a good line and length. My plan was to bat deep and stick to the basics. I knew it would be hard in the latter stages.”
The result moved Sri Lanka off the bottom of the standings and up to ninth, above Afghanistan thanks to a marginally better net run rate. The Netherlands are one place above them, also with one win from their first four matches.
The Dutch had won the toss and opted to bat first but they had a poor start after Sri Lanka’s fast bowlers Kasun Rajitha and Dilshan Madushanka ran through the top and middle order, and were reeling at 91-6 when skipper Scott Edwards was sent back to the pavilion by Maheesh Theekshana.
Sybrand Engelbrecht (70) and Logan van Beek (59) rescued the Netherlands with a 130-run partnership. The pair rotated strike and guided the team to a competitive total but they were bundled out for 262 in the final over of their innings as Rajitha and Madushanka finished with four wickets each.
“We didn’t start well but we got ourselves to a pretty competitive total,” Edwards said. “Our batting hasn’t quite clicked yet. It’s obviously great that Sybrand and Logan chipped in with 130 runs. Ideally, we would get more runs at the top.”
In response, the Sri Lankan opener Pathum Nissanka laid the foundation for their chase with a knock of 54 that included nine boundaries but Aryan Dutt contained them with three wickets, dismissing Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis cheaply.
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Samarawickrama then built partnerships of 52, 77 and 76 with Nissanka, Charith Asalanka and Dhananjaya de Silva respectively, steadying the ship before Dushan Hemantha came in and hit the winning runs.
The Netherlands next play Australia on Wednesday while Sri Lanka take on England a day later.