Match No.9 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 was played between Sri Lanka and Nederlands on 20 October, Thursday in Geelong. Sri Lanka won the toss and scored 163 runs at the loss of 7 wickets with the help of Kusal Mendis’s 79 runs. Nederlands could only manage to score 146 runs losing 9 wickets in the process.
Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Their innings started slowly in the powerplay and lost 2 wickets in successive balls. There Sri Lankan top order led by opener Kusal Mendis set the innings for a big total. Kusal Mendis scored 79 runs in 44 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes. He single-handedly outsmarted the bowling attack. Charith Asalanka played a calm and rather slow inning to build the partnership. He scored 31 runs in 30 balls. Cameo innings by Bhanuka Rajapaksa of 19 runs in 13 balls helped Sri Lanka to a strong total of 163 runs on the board.
For Nederlands, Paul van meekeren bowled well and took 2 wickets only giving 25 runs in his spell. Along with him Bas de Leede also took 2 wickets.
Nederlands was chasing a challenging target to completely secure their place in the Super 12 Round. But Sri Lankan bowlers never allowed Dutch batters to explode and kept them under check. Only opener Max o Dowd played impressively. He scored a valiant 71 runs in 53 balls. But his efforts went in vain. Other batters struggled with strike rate. The required run rate got out of hand at the 10th over mark. Other than Max o Dowd, captain Edwards scored 21 runs in 15 balls.
Sri Lankan bowlers kept taking wickets at the right time. Spinner Wanindu Hasaranga took 3 wickets. Mahesh Theekshana took 2 wickets. Lahiru Kumara and Binura Fernando took 1 wicket each.
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With this win, Sri Lanka is one step closer to qualifying for the Super 12 Round but Namibia could pose a threat to that.
