Sri Lanka finally notched its first win at the Cricket World Cup by beating the Netherlands by five wickets on Saturday in Lucknow, India.
The Dutch, which produced a stunning 38-run win over South Africa, scored a competitive total of 262 on the back of maiden ODI half-centuries from Sybrand Engelbrecht (70) and Logan van Beek (59).
Offspinner Aryan Dutt (3-44) troubled Sri Lanka with the new ball in the batting powerplay before Sadeera Samarawickrama made an unbeaten 91 off 107 balls and eased Sri Lanka to 263-5 for its first points after losses to South Africa, Pakistan and Australia.
Opening batter Pathum Nissanka followed his half-centuries against Australia and Pakistan with 54 as Samarawickrama anchored Sri Lanka’s run-chase.
Dutt troubled Sri Lanka’s top-order with his variations as he claimed the wickets of Kusal Mendis (11) and captain Kusal Perera (5) inside the batting powerplay.
Fast bowler Paul van Meekeren provided the Netherlands hope when Nissanka got a healthy inside of in the 17th over and was caught behind before Samarawickrama added valuable 77 runs for the fourth wicket with Charith Asalanka (44).
Dutt returned and had Asalanka clean bowled in his last over but Samarawickrama dominated spinners and the seamers and raised another half-century stand with Dhananjaya de Silva, who made 30.
Earlier, after electing to bat first, Netherlands ran into early trouble when it lost five wickets for 43 runs and slumped to 91-6 against pace in the 22nd over.
Dilshan Madushanka (4-49) and Kasun Rajitha (4-50) mopped the top order with their career-best bowling figures, but Engelbrecht and van Beek led a grand Dutch recovery as they shared a World Cup record-breaking 130-run seventh wicket stand.
Engelbrecht and van Beek then denied Sri Lanka success for more than 23 overs before they fell while attempting to accelerate in the last death overs.
Sri Lanka has two points from four games. The Netherlands also has two points but is at No. 8 on better run-rate than both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.