🏏 Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #19: Sri Lanka vs Netherlands 🏏

In sports, normally every player wants to win, but only a few will be winners, and the rest will be mere witnesses. So far, in this World Cup, it is happening like that. Let us hope that will change, and we'll get a chance to watch a few thrillers from now on!

🏏 Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #19: Sri Lanka vs Netherlands 🏏

The Netherlands take on Sri Lanka in Match 19 of the ODI World Cup 2023 at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow, this morning.

The Netherlands produced one of the biggest upsets in ODI Cricket Cup history, beating South Africa by 38 runs in their previous match.

In a rain-shortened game, skipper Scott Edwards scored an unbeaten 78, and the bowlers did a brilliant job taking wickets at regular intervals. Logan van Beek was the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets.

On the other hand, Sri Lanka remains the only team with no wins in the tournament so far.

They lost the last match against Australia by 5 wickets. Batting first, Perera and Nissanka made fifties, but no one could score big after that. The final score was 209 runs. Dilshan Madushanka was the only bowler who looked like taking wickets and ended up with figures of 3/38.

Sri Lanka and Netherlands have faced each other in 5 matches in One Day Internationals out of which Sri Lanka have won all 5 while the Netherlands has won none. At the World Cup, the Netherlands have never played against Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka World Cup reel so far has a handful of individual moments of brilliance but zero points to show for them. The inconsistency has been rampant; their depleted bowling unit let them down in Delhi and Hyderabad, but more alarmingly, their batting combusted from a position of strength in Lucknow.

A little over a month ago, Sri Lanka had a 13-game winning streak in ODIs, second only to Australia's 21 from 2003.

But the tide has turned violently since then, leaving them with one win in six. Compounding their woes is the form and psyche of the Netherlands—the perceived 'outsider' and 'non-elite'. Sri Lanka have repeatedly been left to lick their wounds in this tournament so far, while Edwards's side is fresh from having brought the big-tournament cliché of 'every team can beat every other team on their day' to life!!

Sri Lanka needs a turning point, and Netherlands, a rare passage towards the top half of the table.

Tag Credit: Sutapasima

SL vs NED: Predicted 11s

Netherlands: Vikramjit Singh, Max O'Dowd, Colin Ackermann, Bas de Leede, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Teja Nidamanuru, Scott Edwards (c & wk), Logan van Beek, Roelof van der Merwe, Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meekeren.

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara/Kasun Rajitha, Dilshan Madushanka. Ekana Stadium Stats

Weather - 26°C, Mostly sunny

Pitch - Balanced (Good for spinners)

Avg. 1st Innings Score - 208 runs (6 ODIs played)

Toss: Team batting first won 3 times (6 ODIs played)

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PITCH REPORT

The pitch at the Ekana Cricket Stadium is primarily helpful to the batters. Pacers may enjoy some seam and swing at the start, which can create problems for the batters. Batters can play their shots freely after spending a few balls on the ground. Teams winning the toss choose to bowl, with the average first-inning score being 232.

What to expect: A sunny and pleasant morning, with temperatures oscillating between late 20s and early 30s in degree celsius. In the two games at this venue in the World Cup so far, pacers have picked up more wickets than spinners - 17 to 13. In the six ODIs here, teams batting first and chasing have won three each. But these numbers might not mean much ahead of Saturday's fixture, which is the first day game at the venue - taking dew and the impact of toss out of the picture. On Friday, Netherlands' Teja Nidamanuru said: "From speaking to the ground staff, they say there is going to be a little bit more pace and carry [on the wicket]."

Team News

Netherlands

It's only been three days since they pulled off an incredible win in Delhi. Barring any niggles or injuries from that victory, they should unleash the same XI against Sri Lanka.

Tactics & Strategy

Netherlands might want to avoid the stress of chasing to give themselves the best chance to upstage another opposition. Like Afghanistan, their fellow giant killers, the Netherlands are better off putting a score up and coming together to defend it.

There's recent evidence against this particular opposition to support the idea—they fell short in two chases against Sri Lanka in the World Cup qualifiers.

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Sri Lanka

Angelo Mathews and Dushmantha Chameera are flying in on the eve of the game as travelling reserves, but cannot walk into the playing XI unless Sri Lanka officially replace one of their existing 15 players in the squad with them. Sri Lanka could bring in Kasun Rajitha to freshen up a struggling bowling department.

Tactics & Strategy

Sri Lanka's best bet is their batting, particularly through the middle-overs. They have the likes of Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka who averaged 57.4, 48.0 and 49.1 in that phase (11-40 overs) this year.

Probable XI: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara/Kasun Rajitha, Dilshan Madushanka

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Did you know:

- Scott Edwards averages 62.58 against spin in ODIs

- Maheesh Theekshana has seven wickets in two World Cup matches against Netherlands, and has a measly economy rate of 4.59 in the middle-overs (11-40) in ODIs this year

- In 2023, Vikramjit Singh and Max O'Dowd have scored 781 runs in 16 innings together as openers, at an average of 48.81.

- Since January 2022, Sri Lanka opener Pathum Nissanka has scored 1310 runs at an average of 46.78. No other Sri Lankan batter has 1000 or more runs in the same period in this format.

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Thanks for the thread.

Want SL to win so all will have 1 win atleast

What they said:

"I think If we assess those two games that we played against Sri Lanka [in World Cup qualifiers], it's our batting department that probably didn't live up to the expectation that we needed to. I think in the final we played, we kept them down to a good score; we could have chased that, but obviously their spin through the middle was something that troubled us... but that's something that we've looked into and we've addressed and we've worked extremely hard on playing spin and being able to rotate strike through the middle a little bit better." -Teja Nidamanuru

The Netherlands have won just one game out of the three that they have played and are placed eighth. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, has yet to win any matches so far and is languishing at the bottom of the table.

Nobody really expected Netherlands to go far in this World Cup. However, they have come through to the tournament after a brilliant show in the qualifiers. These men can’t be taken lightly, and they showed exactly why the other day against South Africa. They didn’t just secure a win over the Proteas; they outplayed them comprehensively and, in the process, registered their first ODI win against a Test-playing nation.

In the previous game, it was skipper Scott Edwards who led the way with an outstanding unbeaten knock of 78 from 69 balls, when the team was reeling at 112-6 at one point. Edwards has been in fine form of late, having scored 339 runs in the last 10 matches at an average of 56.5 and a strike rate of 110.

The team will also be expecting a lot from Bas de Leede. The all-rounder has been the backbone of this Netherlands side for a while now. He has scored 368 runs and taken 21 wickets in his last nine matches. He is also the leading wicket-taker of the team in the World Cup.

The Ekana Cricket Stadium offers a typical Indian surface. It’s great to bat on during the first half of the innings. However, as the match progresses, the pitch becomes slower, and the ball tends to grip the surface. Batting becomes tougher in the second half, and if the chasing side has a target of around 270-odd to get, they might struggle.

The weather in Lucknow will be hazy and warm.

Venue Details

The average first inning score at the Ekana Cricket Stadium after six ODIs is 208. South Africa’s 311-7 against Australia last week is the highest team total posted here. The team batting first should look to preserve wickets and keep building partnerships because this isn’t a typical high-scoring venue and teams tend to lose wickets at regular intervals during the middle overs. The team batting first would look to set a target of around 270-280 runs.

Toss: To Bat

The pitch at the Ekana Cricket Stadium tends to slow down a bit as the game goes on. So, it makes better sense to bat first and try to put on a huge total. This is exactly what happened in the game between South Africa and Australia at this venue last week. South Africa posted 311-7 after batting first and went on to win the match by 134 runs.