ICC World Cup: Netherlands will take on Sri Lanka at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow
In ICC World Cup, Netherlands will take on Sri Lanka at 10.30 AM at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
In the afterglow of the win over South Africa in Dharamsala, Netherlands captain Scott Edwards proudly spoke of ‘total cricket’ – a tactical setup borrowed from football that made waves in the 1970s in the Netherlands. In simple terms, it is a concept where any player could take up the role of any other player (barring the goalkeeper) in a fluid system full of versatility and synchronization. Edwards drew parallels in cricket after his No.8 and No.9 batters – Roelof van der Merwe and Aryan Dutt – stepped up to do the batting job that the top-order didn’t, and changed the course of the game in the process.
‘Total cricket’ is perhaps the need of the hour for Sri Lanka too. Their 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 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 cliche of ‘every team can beat every other team on their day’ to life.
Saturday’s day game was expected to be one of the non-glamorous fixtures of the tournament, until narratives changed and expectations ramped up – Sri Lanka need a turning point and Netherlands, a rare passage towards the top-half of the table.
Squads:
Netherlands Squad: Vikramjit Singh, Max ODowd, Colin Ackermann, Bas de Leede, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Teja Nidamanuru, Scott Edwards(w/c), Logan van Beek, Roelof van der Merwe, Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meekeren, Wesley Barresi, Ryan Klein, Shariz Ahmad, Saqib Zulfiqar
Sri Lanka Squad: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis(w/c), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushan Hemantha, Matheesha Pathirana, Kasun Rajitha, Dimuth Karunaratne
