Sri Lanka have endured a tough World Cup campaign. They were the first victims of the controversial and treacherous New York pitch before being jetted around to three different venues for three other matches. Short turnaround time, delayed flights, the inconvenience of long travel for training and a washout later, the curtains have come down on a forgettable tournament for the 2014 winners. Angelo Mathews was there that night in Dhaka when Sri Lanka downed India, and is now in St. Lucia on June 16, expressing his disappointment at being ousted after the first round.
The miles Sri Lanka have had to clock to just play four games has been cruel, but incidentally, their opponents on Monday are the only other team having to deal with that predicament. Netherlands began in Dallas, moved to New York before heading to St. Vincent and wrapping up in St. Lucia. Their opinion of this scheduling however, has been refreshingly stark.
“Yeah, I think for our guys it’s an awesome opportunity to play cricket in different parts of the world. It’s something we thrive off. We love playing in different conditions in different parts of the world. Obviously, it’s short breaks between games but that’s just part of how these World Cups go and our guys love that,” Netherlands captain Scott Edwards said on the eve. The prospects of making it to the Super-8s, however faint, has given Netherlands another reason to remain upbeat and hopeful.
What Netherlands need for qualification:
Batting first: If Bangladesh lose to Nepal by 30 runs, Netherlands will have to beat Sri Lanka by around 23 runs (assuming a first-innings score of 150 in both case)
Batting second: If Nepal chase a target in 18 overs against Bangladesh, Netherlands will have to do that within 14.3 overs against Sri Lanka (assuming first innings score of 150 in both cases).
When: Sri Lanka vs Netherlands, 38th Match, T20 World Cup 2024, 8:30 PM Local time, 6:00 AM IST
Where: Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia
What to expect: A big score? Less than 24 hours ago, Scotland posted 180/5, which turned out to be sub-par and undefendable. The conditions in St. Lucia has come as a breath of fresh air for batters at this tournament.
Team watch:
Sri Lanka
Tactics & Matchups:Sri Lankan spinners should be influential against a batting line-up that has largely struggled against their kind of bowling since January 2022. Barring Sybrand Engelbrecht (158.82) and Michael Levitt (154.67), the Dutch top-order has trouble scoring swiftly against spin. Logan van Beek is the worst among the lot, with a strike rate of 60.61 against spin.
Probable XI:Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Kamindu Mendis, Dhanajaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Angelo Mathews, Dasun Shanaka, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana, Nuwan Thushara
Netherlands
With two left-handers in Sri Lanka’s top-five, Netherlands’ off-spinner Aryan Dutt should keep his place.
Tactics & Matchups:The rare batting-friendly conditions in St. Lucia should give Netherlands opener Michael Levitt a glint in his eyes. He has scored 236 runs in 5 T20I innings at a strike rate of 173.52 while batting first.
Probable XI:Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (c & wk), Bas de Leede, Logan van Beek, Tim de Leede, Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
Did you know:
– Angelo Mathews is nine runs short of 500 runs in T20 World Cups
– Since the last T20 World Cup in 2022, Vivian Kingma is Netherlands’ leading-wicket taker in T20Is with 14 scalps
What they said:
“Absolutely, that [not qualifying for Super-8s] is something that we regret because the way we played Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh in Bangladesh, I thought we didn’t do justice to our capabilities in this tournament. When you come into a World Cup, you can’t take any team lightly but unfortunately the way we played against those teams just before the World Cup and then once we came back here and the way we played… obviously the wickets were quite different, but we didn’t do justice to ourselves.” – Angelo Mathews on Sri Lanka’s dismal World Cup campaign
“They are obviously a quality side. We have played them a lot of times in the last couple of years. We know the skills they’ve got. We know what they bring and yeah, we know what we’re coming up against.” – Scott Edwardson the Sri Lankan challenge awaiting Netherlands
