Sri Lanka is one win away from World Cup qualification 

Sri Lanka registered a 21-run thriller win over the Netherlands in the second match of the Super Six stage in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers 2023 on Friday at Bulawayo. Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka won the coin toss and elected to bat first.

After winning the toss, Sri Lanka got off to a horrible start, and they lost their top order cheaply. The Dutch bowler kept things tight and took wickets in regular intervelas. At one stage, Sri Lanka were 34 for 4 in the 7th over of the match. After that, Dimuth Karunarathne and Dhananjaya de Silva tried to rebuild the innings and added a 33-run partnership until Karunarathne was dismissed for 33 runs. 29 runs later, the Sri Lankan skipper was LBW for 5 runs. After that, Wanindu Hasaranga and de Silva made a 35-run partnership for the 7th wicket, and Hasaranga was dismissed for 20 runs. Later, Maheesh Theekshana joined Dhananjaya de Silva and added 77 runs for the 8th wicket. Maheesh Theekshana scored 28 runs. Dhananjaya de Silva was the top scorer with 93 runs. Eventually, Sri Lanka was bowled out for 213 runs in 47.4 overs. For the Netherlands, Bas de Leede and Logan van Beek claimed three wickets each.

In reply, the Netherlands batted out for 192 runs in 40 overs. The Netherlands lost both their openers to ducks. After that, Wesley Barresi and Bas de Leede made a 77-run partnership for the 3rd wicket until Wesley Barresi was run out for 52 runs. Bas de Leede scored 41 runs. However, Sri Lankan bowlers came back strongly in the back end of the innings and put pressure on the Dutch batsmen. Scott Edwards was the top scorer with an unbeaten 67 runs. For Sri Lanka, Maheesh Theekshana claimed three wickets for 31 runs.

With that win, Sri Lanka gained 2 points and moved to the top of the point table.