(Poornama Edirisooriya writes)
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| Sri Lanka through to the Super 12s |
Sri Lanka qualified for the Super 12s as the table topper of Group A. Yes, it was the expectation before the tournament. I bet all the fans expected Sri Lanka to join Australia, England, New Zealand, and Afghanistan. But no one thought we would've gone through some of the uncertainties, heartbreaks, and heart attacks that Sri Lankan cricket fans are used to.
Unexpectedly Sri Lanka lost the match to Namibia with a big margin in the first match and then, won the must-win game against UAE. The UAE win and the weather becoming more friendly surely made more relief in the Sri Lankan camp before the last match of the First Round.
Having won the toss Shanaka chose to bat first which was the right decision since many teams so far in the tournament struggled in the chasing inning. Sri Lanka had two forced changes which are due to the injuries of Dushmantha Chameera and Pramod Madushan. Lahiru Kumara and Binura Fernando got the chances instead.
The right-handed duo started watchfully to make just 36 runs off the powerplay. The dutch got over Sri Lanka in the 7th over that gave them two wickets in two balls as Nissanka and Dhananjaya de Silva fell apart. A review could save DDS, but he didn't get the support of Mendis to go for a review.
Kusal Mendis kept finding regular boundaries, especially at the leg side which is his stronger side while Asalanka came out of the shell to build a 60 runs partnership with KM. Sri Lanka finished the inning as 162 for 6 thanks to the brilliant batting by Kusal Mendis who made 79 off 44 balls hitting 5 sixes and as many boundaries.
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| Mendis was the main architect of Sri Lankan inning |
Netherlands didn't look in the right mood for the chase right from the start of their inning. Bowlers kept taking wickets as ODowd held one side. Skipper Edwards tried to attack Sri Lanka bowlers with his leg side shots but too much risk got him out bowled for a knuckle-ball of Binura Fernando.
The opener Max ODowd just made 38 from 35 until the 18th over. With 8 down, he got nothing but to go for shots which he tried. He made 15 and 16 runs off the 18th and 19 overs to give some sort of hope for Netherlands but Lahiru Kumara held his nerves to give only 6 runs off the last over where Netherlands needed 23 runs. ODowd carried his bat after making 71 runs and Netherlands had to wait hoping UAE would beat Namibia for their Super 12 chances which happened later in the day.
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| Hasaranga in to the top of wickets charts with 7 wickets so far |
Sri Lanka is through to the Group 1 of Super 12s as they will start their first match vs B2 at Hobart on 23rd October. Even though we qualified it wasn't a walk in the park. Sri Lanka team still has some issues to cover up. Let's hope Dasun and the team can bring their A-Game to the super 12s.
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