Sadeera Samarawickrama scored a responsible and unbeaten 91* to hand Sri Lanka their first win in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, beating the Netherlands by 5 wickets on Saturday at the Ekana Stadium, Lucknow.
Reporting from Lucknow, India.
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Samarawickrama batted with great authority and calmness during his 107-ball knock to steer the 263-run chase after Sybrand Engelbrecht and Logan Van Beek added a record-breaking 7th wicket stand of 130 runs to take Netherlands to a competitive score of 262 after opting to bat first.
After being 91 for 6, Engelbrecht and Van Beek made fighting half-centuries as Sri Lanka let the advantage slip in the middle overs. They added 130 runs off 143 balls, surpassing the previous record of 116 runs which was held by Ravindra Jadeja and M. S. Dhoni against New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup.
Earlier in the morning, Sri Lankan seamer Kasun Rajitha’s opening spell of 7 overs was of great quality and control – he did not give away anything. With a peach of a delivery which swung back in, Rajitha dismissed Vikramjit Singh in the 4th over of the game.
In the last ball of the first powerplay, Max O’Dowd chopped on to become Rajitha’s second wicket. Rajitha’s third victim was Colin Ackermann, who edged behind for 29. Rajitha, towards the death, took another wicket to end with his career best performance – 4 for 50.
Rajitha’s seam bowling partner, Dilshan Madushanka bowled a decent opening spell of 4 overs without any success. However, when he came back on for his second spell, the left-arm seamer took 2 crucial wickets in 3 overs. Bas De Leede found Kusal Perera at third-man, whilst Teja Nidamanuru was trapped plumb in front as the Dutch were 71 for 5 in the 19th over. Madushanka too ended with his career-best ODI spell, 4 for 49, bagging two more wickets in the final few overs to make it 11 wickets in the 4 games thus far in the competition.
Maheesh Theekshana castled the Netherlands Captain Scott Edwards with a peach of a delivery that spun and bounced as Sri Lanka seized control of the game in the first half of the Dutch innings.
At 91 for 6, Sri Lanka had an opportunity to close out the game. However, Engelbrecht and and Van Beek had different plans as they put away the bad deliveries and rotated the strike to rebuild the innings.
Leg-spinner Dushan Hemantha, who came in place of left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage, could not pose any threat to the Dutch pair of Engelbrecht and Van Beek despite bowling 8 overs for 42 runs. The Netherlands added 171 runs for the last 4 wickets.
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Engelbrecht’s 82-ball 70 had 4 fours and 1 six, whilst Van Beek’s 59 came off 75 balls. His 59 only had 1 four and 1 six. Both the right-handers fell in the death overs whilst looking for big runs.
Chasing 263 runs to win, Kusal Perera failed to make an impression as he cut one straight to point as off-spinner Aryan Dutt struck early. Kusal Mendis perished early when his attempt of a slog sweep off Dutt in the final over in the first powerplay proved futile as Sri Lanka were 52 for 2 in chase of 263.
Pathum Nissanka looked fabulous as he got to his fifty in just 48 balls. This is his 3rd consecutive fifty in the competition. However, in the very first ball after the drinks break, Nissanka edged behind to make it 104 for 3.
Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka added a crucial 77 runs off 99 balls for the 4th wicket to bring Sri Lanka closer. With Dutt getting plenty of spin and bounce, the pair had to see him off, but Asalanka attempted a slog-sweep and was castled in Dutt’s last over for 44.
Dhananjaya De Silva joined Samarawickrama and they made sure Sri Lanka reached the target without any more hiccups.
Sri Lanka’s success in the chase relied on three 50+ partnerships. Ironically, Samarawickrama was involved in all three of them with Nissanka, Asalanka and De Silva.
In 4 games, Sri Lanka have now lost 3 games and won 1. Sri Lanka’s next game in the competition will be against England on the 26th of October in Bangalore.
Netherlands – 262 (49.4 overs): Colin Ackermann 29, Sybrand Engelbrecht 70, Logan Van Beek 59, Kasun Rajitha 4/50, Dilshan Madushanka 4/49.
Sri Lanka – 263/5 (48.2 overs): Pathum Nissanka 54, Charith Asalanka 44, Sadeera Samarawickrama 91*, Dhananjaya De Silva 30, Aryan Dutt 3/44
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vikramjit Singh | lbw b Kasun Rajitha | 4 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 30.77 |
| Max O’Dowd | b Kasun Rajitha | 16 | 27 | 1 | 1 | 59.26 |
| Colin Ackermann | c Kusal Mendis b Kasun Rajitha | 29 | 31 | 5 | 0 | 93.55 |
| Bas de Leede | c Kusal Perera b Dilshan Madushanka | 6 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 28.57 |
| Teja Nidamanuru | lbw b Dilshan Madushanka | 9 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 56.25 |
| Scott Edwards | b Matheesha Pathirana | 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Sybrand Engelbrecht | b Dilshan Madushanka | 70 | 82 | 4 | 1 | 85.37 |
| Logan van Beek | c Charith Asalanka b Kasun Rajitha | 59 | 75 | 1 | 1 | 78.67 |
| Roelof van der Merwe | c Kusal Mendis b Dilshan Madushanka | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Aryan Dutt | not out | 9 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 150.00 |
| Paul van Meekeren | run out (Kusal Mendis) | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 80.00 |
| Extras | 33 (b 0 , lb 1 , nb 1, w 26, pen 5) |
| Total | 262/10 (49.4 Overs, RR: 5.28) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dilshan Madushanka | 9.4 | 1 | 49 | 4 | 5.21 | |
| Kasun Rajitha | 9 | 0 | 50 | 4 | 5.56 | |
| Chamika Karunaratne | 9 | 1 | 58 | 0 | 6.44 | |
| Mahesh Theekshana | 10 | 0 | 44 | 1 | 4.40 | |
| Dushan Hemantha | 8 | 0 | 42 | 0 | 5.25 | |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 4 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 3.25 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pathum Nissanka | c Scott Edwards b Paul van Meekeren | 54 | 52 | 9 | 0 | 103.85 |
| Kusal Perera | c Bas de Leede b Aryan Dutt | 5 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 62.50 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Paul van Meekeren b Aryan Dutt | 11 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 64.71 |
| Sadeera Samarawickrama | not out | 91 | 107 | 7 | 0 | 85.05 |
| Charith Asalanka | b Aryan Dutt | 44 | 66 | 2 | 1 | 66.67 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | b Colin Ackermann | 30 | 37 | 1 | 2 | 81.08 |
| Dushan Hemantha | not out | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 133.33 |
| Extras | 24 (b 13 , lb 0 , nb 0, w 11, pen 0) |
| Total | 263/5 (48.2 Overs, RR: 5.44) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aryan Dutt | 10 | 0 | 44 | 3 | 4.40 | |
| Logan van Beek | 10 | 0 | 57 | 0 | 5.70 | |
| Paul van Meekeren | 8 | 1 | 39 | 1 | 4.88 | |
| Bas de Leede | 3 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 9.67 | |
| Roelof van der Merwe | 9 | 0 | 42 | 0 | 4.67 | |
| Colin Ackermann | 8.2 | 0 | 39 | 1 | 4.76 | |
