Sri Lanka 201 for 6 (Kusal Mendis 46, Asalanka 46, van Beek 2-45) beat the The Netherlands 118 all out in 16.4 overs (Edwards 31, Levitt 31, Thushara 3-24, Pathirana 2-12) by 83 runs

The Netherlands were officially knocked out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup with an 83-run loss as Sri Lanka picked up a resounding consolation win in Gros Islet in St. Lucia.

With Bangladesh and the Netherlands still in the running for the lone Super Eight spot up for grabs, it came down to the final two Group D games in Kingstown and Gros Islet, both an hour apart, to decide who would join India, Australia and Afghanistan in the first group.

Coming into this game, the Dutch knew the odds were stacked heavily against them: they had to hope for Nepal to overturn Bangladesh, in what would have been their first win against a Test-playing nation, and themselves beat Sri Lanka by a big enough margin to overhaul Bangladesh’s net run-rate.

In the end, both looked far-fetched but once Nepal had bowled Bangladesh out for 106 and with Sri Lanka placed at 39 for 2 inside the powerplay, there was a glimmer of hope.

With qualification to the Super Eights already beyond them and with nothing to lose, Sri Lanka barely put a foot wrong and produced the perfect game that had eluded them.

Overcoming the hiccup of losing opener Pathum Nissanka early after being inserted to bat on a batting-friendly pitch, the Sri Lankan batters rotated the strike consistently and swung freely with the wind to rack up the venue’s highest total of 201 for 6 and only the second 200-plus total of the tournament.

Kusal Mendis set the tone with a 29-ball 46, anchoring alongside Dhananjaya de Silva (34 off 26) after the loss of two early wickets, but it was Charith Asalanka’s 46 off 21 balls in the middle overs that took the game beyond the Dutch. He cracked five sixes before Angelo Mathews (30* off 15) and Wanindu Hasaranga (20* off 6) crunched 77 off the last five overs.

The Dutch openers, Max O’Dowd and Michael Levitt, started positively in response, plundering 45 off 26 balls in the powerplay anticipating the need to chase down the total in as few overs as possible. Had Nepal chased down 107 in 12 overs, the Dutch would have only needed a win, rendering net run-rate out of the equation.

But coincidentally, just as their fate was sealed into the ninth over of the chase as Nepal stumbled to a 21-run defeat, the wheels started to come off as the Dutch lost their last eight wickets for 56 runs.

Captain Scott Edwards offered the lone resistance with 31 off 24 balls in the face of increasing run rate after Levitt’s opening flourish of a 23-ball 31, striking three sixes and two fours.

Sri Lanka’s right-arm slingers Nuwan Thushara and Matheesha Pathirana shared five wickets between them as spinners Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana applied the squeeze to snuff out the middle order.

Battle

The loss epitomised a campaign underpinned by batting struggles and the bowlers’ failure to close out games at the death with the fielding the only positive across the three facets.

Barring the win against Nepal, the bowlers struggled against South Africa to close out the game from having them on the ropes at 12 for 4 in a chase of 104 and were guilty of conceding 47 off the last four overs against Bangladesh and 77 off the last five against Sri Lanka earlier today.

With the bat, it felt the Dutch batters had “left it a little bit late” against Nepal despite a win and later crumbled to lose five for 23 from a strong position against Bangladesh in conditions far better suited for batting.

“We had good patches throughout the tournament where we gave ourselves a chance to win at least three of those games, but just in those moments, the batting or the bowling or the fielding was just slightly off and against good-quality sides, you just can’t afford that,” Edwards said after the game.

Privilege

After dropping catches and missing opportunities in the field during the T20I tri-series last month, all-rounder Logan van Beek spoke about a shift in mindset. The result? A near-perfect record in the field with just one drop. On Monday, Sybrand Engelbrecht provided a further reminder of his skill and athleticism: leaping one-handed at the deep-midwicket boundary to save five runs.

“It’s always a massive privilege and we are always very excited to be a part of this. But we didn’t just come here to fill up the numbers: we really came here to compete, and I do believe that there’s enough talent and skill in our changing room to do that. [There are] a lot of learnings that we’ll take from this and hopefully, it will stand us in good stead going forward,” Engelbrecht, who also finished as the side’s leading run-scorer with 98 runs in his four outings, said at the post-match press conference.

Eventually Bangladesh snuck through with six points in three games as the Dutch finished fourth with just two points from their opening win against Nepal in Dallas.