Sri Lanka overcome Engelbrecht-led resistance to finally open their account
Sri Lanka's seamers did plenty of early damage, and in the chase Sadeera Samarawickrama made sure he coolly got the job done
Sri Lanka's seamers did plenty of early damage, and in the chase Sadeera Samarawickrama made sure he coolly got the job done
Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: @himanshu_a30
So all teams have at least one win now. But Sri Lanka are still ninth on the points table, with almost half their campaign done today. It might have too late, but who knows what awaits in the second half? Netherlands fought back from being in a hole, but weren't good enough eventually. That was it from us from Lucknow today, with the action in Mumbai going on in full flow. Until next time, see you!
Kusal Mendis, the winning captain: "Very happy today. We did really well in everything. Bowlers did really well in the first ten overs. The pitch started turning a bit towards the end of the match. Sadeera batted really well. I thought I could bowl Rajitha off straightaway, but he had only three overs left. Pathum and Sadeera batted really well, and so did Charith Asalanka. There are a lot of positives in the batting."
Scott Edwards speaks first: "We didn't start well. We got ourselves to a pretty competitive total. [There were] boundary balls, and we didn't field well. Our bowlers have been pretty good for us throughout the tournament. We had a feeling that it started to turn later. I thought Aryan bowled exceptionally well today. 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."
Time for the presentations
Amish: "Sri Lanka wasted a chance to improve net run rate by slowing down too much in late overs."
Sadeera Samarawickrama is the Player of the Match: "Really happy to finish the game. We needed a win. When I went in to bat, the wicket was not easy. The ball was spinning, and the fast bowlers were bowling on a good line and length. I did my basics right. I knew it would be hard in the later part because the wicket was turning and gripping. So the plan was to bat deep."
6.27pm A hard-fought win for Sri Lanka, their first this tournament. Who knew though that it would take this long when Netherlands when 91 for 6 after opting to bat first? And even when Asalanka got out, Sri Lanka needed only another 82 in more than 17 overs; but Netherlands managed to drag them almost all the way, though Sadeera's unbeaten 91, yet another fifty from Nissanka and a crucial hand from Asalanka ensures full points. Hang around for the presentations.
Worrying questions get some answers after picking up first points of the ODI World Cup
The Netherlands batter backs the side to move forward and learn from the defeat against Sri Lanka 'as quickly as possible'
Sri Lanka's seamers did plenty of early damage, and in the chase Sadeera Samarawickrama made sure he coolly got the job done
The margins between these sides are now arguably as fine as they have ever been
"When you do come up against [big teams], you're like, okay, well, we've really got to rise to the occasion"