Paul van Meekeren knew how big a wicket he’d just picked. It showed in his celebratory run all the way to the edge of the circle near short third man. The volume in the field that had started to go down as Sri Lanka’s riposte took off hit some high notes again. Netherlands were pumped. Scott Edwards quickly gathered his men into a huddle as Pathum Nissanka walked after an innings of 52-ball 54.
This was no South Africa situation, where the chasing side had begun their task with a foot hovering over the panic button. This was a day game in Lucknow where batting was meant to get easier. And it appeared so from the way Sri Lanka began. But in the same over from van Meekeren – the 17th in chase – there was a puff of dust that kicked up from the pitch and soon became a tricky surface to bat on. Edwards, who’d aced moving his bowlers around just a few days ago in Dharamsala was at it again.
With now room to throw the chase in a bit of a disarray, Edwards brought back Aryan Dutt. The gutsy 20-year-old off-spinner gave Edwards the start he desired in the first PowerPlay, and was now in to disrupt Sri Lanka’s progress by testing the resolve of an equally gutsy Charith Asalanka. What followed was an engaging mini-battle between the two.
The left-handed Asalanka was pushed to the back foot and beaten by the round the stumps angle on the first ball he faced from the spinner – a recurring template for this match-up that lasted until the 33rd over. Sadeera Samarawickrama had been in for long enough to realise this was not a straightforward surface to pack up the chase well before time and had conversations with Asalanka about taking it deep and being watchful against balls that turned visciously.
Asalanka followed that to the T, curbing his instincts for one-upmanship against spinners. When he was not getting thoroughly beaten on the turn, Asalanka pushed, proded and nudged around for safe runs to keep Sri Lanka protected from the susceptibility of a pressure-induced collapse.
Through overs 20 and 30, Edwards tried to crank up the pressure by throwing in all three of his spinners in Dutt, Colin Ackermann and Roelof van der Merwe. It was a phase where Samarawickrama and Asalanka gladly shut shop on the urge to quicken the chase, and manipulated the spread out fields, keeping the scoring rate on par with what they needed, at the very least. The calmness in the middle led the Dutch to be a tad desperate, burning both their reviews on LBW shouts that were way off. They were still encouraged by the amount of turn the ball took, only for it to be blunted by the two batters in no real hurry.
In the 29th over, the same one when Netherlands lost their second review, Asalanka took his first risk of the innings by giving Dutt the charge and getting a straight six in return. He was still not in full control of the way he batted against the spinner but found a rare outlet on this occasion to bring up the 50-run stand with Samarawickrama.
“It was very difficult to bat. They bowled really well and there was assistance for the bowlers. So what I told my partners was that this is not a wicket that we can finish off the match in the 40 or 42rd over. I told them that we should take it deep,” Samarawickrama later revealed.
Asalanka played along with that thought process until the very end, before giving in to the temptation of going big on the fourth ball of Dutt’s final over. The Sri Lankan had his eyes on executing the slog sweep against the turn but ended up getting beaten by one that went straight on and crashed onto the stumps. The dismissal ended a 77-run partnership and left the door slightly ajar for Netherlands to try and sneak in another win. However, Dhananjaya de Silva walked out with Sri Lanka needing 82 off 102 and swore by Samarawickrama’s assessment of the situation and conditions.
Edwards threw left-arm spin of Van der Merwe at the two right-handed batters in the quest to stall and break past them, but Sri Lanka’s chase seamlessly shifted to a slightly higher gear. Samarawickrama took the wheel having brought up a 53-ball half-century and blunted Netherlands as the pacers were easier to deal with from the other end. Sri Lanka added 52 to their chase between overs 30 to 40, leaving themselves with just 40 to get from 10 overs.
Ackermann too got a few balls to misbehave off the pitch and pushed the two batters back, but even at the death Sri Lanka maintained their tranquil approach to what was left in chase. It was only in the 46th over when Dhananjaya de Silva truly brought down the curtains on Netherlands’ faint hopes that flickered on with two sixes off Logan van Beek.
The last two games have given Netherlands a template of sorts to be competitive, particularly on trying surfaces like these. Fight through the middle-overs with the bat and catch up at the death, before Edwards’s captaincy and his uber disciplined bowlers can push for a result. On Saturday evening they did enough for the first part of the plan with a total of 262, courtesy 87 runs scored off the last 59 deliveries. But unfortunately for them, Sri Lanka didn’t buckle under the pressure of an astute opposing captain in a slow-moving chase.
