Sri Lanka escaped with a narrow 21-run win over the Netherlands in their first Super Six round match of the ICC World Cup Qualifier 2023 on Friday, June 30. The former World Cup winners maintained their unbeaten run in the qualifiers to stay on top. Only one win is needed to seal their place in the Super Six table and now in the ICC ODI World Cup in India.
Although Dasun Shanaka-led team had to sweat hard to get two points against the Dutch team. Batting first, Sri Lanka lost young opener Pathum Nissanka on the very first ball of the innings, while Logan van Beek took his first wicket of the day. Sri Lanka’s top-order struggled to build any meaningful partnership as they lost the first four wickets in just seven overs.
An in-form Dimuth Karunaratne scored a crucial 33 and stabilized Sri Lanka’s collapse, but lost his wicket in the 18th over to leave his side at 5/67. but spin allrounder Dhananjay D’SilvaBatting at number six, he played his career-best ODI innings to guide Sri Lanka to a challenging total.
Dhananjay top-scored with 93 off 111 balls with the help of eight fours and two sixes before being dismissed by Aryan Dutt in the 47th over. Wanindu Hasaranga and Mahesh Thikshana also played crucial short innings as Sri Lanka posted 213 in 47.4 overs. For the Netherlands, Logan van Beek and Bad de Leede took three wickets each while Saqib Zulfiqar took two wickets.
Chasing a simple target, the Netherlands lost both their openers Vikramjit Singh and Max O’Dowd for naught. But veteran batsman Wesley Barresi and all-rounder Bas de Leede put on 77 runs for the third wicket to keep the Netherlands alive in the chase. Both the batsmen looked comfortable against Hasaranga and Thikshana, and Baresi scored his maiden half-century in the qualifiers.
Shanaka dismissed Barresi with a sharp throw in the 15th over and it proved to be the key moment in the game for Sri Lanka to come back. Hasaranga dismissed Teja Nidamanuru in the next over and Thikshana dismissed De Leede to put Sri Lanka in the driving seat for the first time in the game.
Zimbabwe struck back through wicket-keeper batsman Scott Edwards, who almost secured a memorable victory for the Dutch. He scored a brilliant half-century and remained unbeaten on 67 off 68 to pull the game away. But Shanaka ended the Netherlands’ resistance by dismissing Dutt in the 40th over to bowl out the opponents for 192.