Sri Lanka's Dilshan Madushanka and Kasun Rajitha both took four wickets against the Netherlands; watch hosts India face New Zealand in Dharamshala on Sunday, October 22, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 9am on Saturday (first ball at 9.30am)
Saturday 21 October 2023 17:30, UK
Sri Lanka recorded their first World Cup victory after beating the Netherlands by five wickets.
The Netherlands posted 262, after winning the toss and choosing to bat, but were bowled out in the final over with two balls remaining in Lucknow.
Right-arm seamer Kasun Rajitha (4-50) struck twice in the powerplay to remove Netherlands openers' Vikram Singh (four) and Max O'Dowd (16), but seventh-wicket pair Sybrand Engelbrecht (70) and Logan van Beek (59) helped take their side past 200.
Sri Lanka's left-arm fast bowler Dilshan Madushanka and Rajitha were the pick of the bowlers, both taking four wickets apiece.
In reply, Sri Lanka started strongly with Pathum Nissanka (54) smashing nine boundaries and middle-order batter Samarawickrama striking an important 91 not out, hitting seven fours, to lead his side to victory.
After Sri Lanka had started strongly with the ball, Van Beek and Engelbrecht shared a stand worth 130 off 143 deliveries, the highest seventh-wicket partnership in men's ODI World Cup history, with the latter reaching his maiden one-day international fifty.
Madushanka broke the partnership with a yorker-length ball that hit the base of Engelbrecht's middle stump to claim the important breakthrough in the 46th over.
All-rounder van Beek fell three overs later after he clubbed Rajitha straight to deep midwicket, while Paul van Meekeren (four) was run-out at the non-striker's end on a no-ball as Madushanka claimed his final victim.
Right-arm off-spin bowler Aryan Dutt inflicted some revenge by also claiming two wickets in the powerplay and dismissing Kusal Perera (five) and Sri Lanka's skipper Kusal Mendis (11) to leave them 52-2.
Charith Asalanka added 44 more to the scoreboard but Dutt struck once more in his final over when the 26-year-old attempted a big slog sweep but missed, and the ball crashed his middle stump.
By the 46th over, Sri Lanka only needed 21 more runs and Dhananjaya de Silva hit van Beek for two huge sixes to get the required runs down to nine.
Hemantha smashed a boundary to mid-on off Ackermann to lead his side to an important victory with one over to spare.
Sri Lanka now sit in ninth place on the table while the Netherlands are above them in seventh place on net run-rate.
Hosts India face New Zealand in Dharamshala on Sunday as the two unbeaten sides collide.
