Former champion Sri Lanka rebounded from its upset opening loss with a comprehensive 79-run win over United Arab Emirates on Tuesday to boost its confidence and its net run rate at the Twenty20 World Cup.
The Sri Lankans still face uncertainty over advancing to the next round. There’s rain on the forecast for Thursday when they’re scheduled to play surprising Group A leader Netherlands, which added a five-wicket, last-over win over Namibia on Tuesday to its last-ball win over the UAE on the weekend.
The top two teams in each preliminary group will progress to the Super 12 stage, which starts this weekend.
Sri Lanka opened with a 55-run loss to Namibia but the two teams are now equal on competition points. If the Sri Lankans beat Netherlands and Namibia beats the UAE in the last of the Group A games, three teams would be tied on points and net run rate would come into the equation to determine who advances.
Sri Lanka got off to a good start against the UAE, reaching 92-1 in 11 overs. But leg-spinner Karthik Meiyappan produced UAE’s first ever hat-trick — and just the fifth in T20 World Cups — and soon Sri Lanka was in trouble at 120-6.
Opening batter Pathum Nissanka bailed his team out of trouble with 74 runs from 60 deliveries. There was some good improvisation by the 24-year-old Nissanka, who hit six fours and two sixes and was voted player of the match.
After a struggle in the middle overs, Sri Lanka set a target of 153 and it proved to be too much for UAE, which was bowled out for 73 in 17.1 overs.
Dushmantha Chameera generated extreme pace with the new ball and claimed the early wickets as the UAE slumped to 19-3.
Wanindu Hasaranga ran through the middle order and retuned 3-8 from four overs, the leg-spinner unlucky not to get a fourth wicket as substitute fielder Jeffrey Vandersay put down a catch in the deep.
There was some concern toward the end of the UAE innings as Chameera limped off the field without completing his last over in what appeared to be calf muscle strain. He has only just returned from an injury that kept him out Sri Lanka’s run to the title at the Asia Cup.
In the earlier game at Geelong, allrounder Bas de Leede hit the winning runs in a run-a-ball 30 as Netherlands chased down the target of 122 with three balls to spare.
He earlier took two important wickets to remove Jan Frylinck (43) and Gerhard Erasmus (16) as Namibia was restricted to 121-6 after winning the toss and opting to bat.
The Dutch are the lowest-ranked squad in the tournament at No. 18 but have produced some big upsets in the past including two wins over England.
“I don’t know if we want to be known as the team that takes it down to the last few balls, but obviously stoked to have the two wins on the board,” Netherlands captain Scott Edwards said “It was a little bit closer than we wanted, but we got there in the end.”
Edwards said joining the top eight ranked teams in the next round is “well and truly in our hands.”
Max O’Dowd shared a 59-run opening stand with Vikramjit Singh (39) and scored a run-a-ball 35 in two solid partnerships at the top of the order to get the Dutch run-chase underway before he was run out by a direct hit at the non-striker’s end, triggering the middle-order collapse.
Netherlands lost four wickets for 10 runs — including three wickets for a run — to slip from 92-1 to 102-5.
But De Leede, who went in at No. 3, remained composed to guide his team to 122-5.
“I think I could take a bit of experience from two days ago. It’s nice to back it up again,” De Leede said of the back-to-back narrow wins. For Netherlands, advancing may still depend on a win over Sri Lanka in the last group game on Friday.
“The self belief has always been there,” de Leede said of the back-to-back wins. “It opens up a bit more freedom for the boys.”