Madushanka spearheads Sri Lanka victory over Dutch

madushanka spearheads sri lanka victory over dutch
AFP

Sri Lanka won the duel between the two World Cup qualifiers on Sunday thrashing the Netherlands by 128 runs in the final of the tournament in Harare.

The Dutch did well to skittle the Sri Lankans out for just 233 inside 48 overs after Dutch captain Scott Edwards won the toss and put them into bat.

However, the Dutch were never in the hunt after being reduced to 39-3 — Dilshan Madushanka taking three of the wickets — as they collapsed to 105 all out in just over 23 overs.

It had all looked a lot rosier for the Dutch when they were in the field.

Edwards would have been especially happy with his side’s performance with the ball as Bas de Leede the star in the victory over Scotland, which clinched their World Cup spot, missed the game having returned to his English county club Durham.

Vikramjit Singh dismissed both Sri Lankan openers including the prized one of the in form Pathum Nissanka, whose hopes of a third successive ton were dashed as he went for 23 caught by Aryan Dutt.

A fine 57 by Sahan Arahchige backed up by decent contributions from wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis (43) and Charith Asalanka (36) provided the backbone of their total.

Madushanka’s devastating spell had the Dutch reeling and opener Max O’Dowd had to watch from the other end as his partners came and went at regular intervals.

O’Dowd eventually went for a doughty 33 off 63 balls clean bowled by Maheesh Theekshana — who cleaned up the tail and finished with 4-31.

Authored by Afp via Breitbart July 9th 2023