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Saturday, February 12, 2011

Sri Lanka thrash Netherlands in World Cup warm-up match

Colombo: Sri Lanka, one of the favourites to win the World Cup, put up an all-round performance to thump the Netherlands by 156 runs in a warm-up match here Saturday.

Tillakaratne Dilshan shapes up to play his favourite scoop shot

In pic: Tillakaratne Dilshan shapes up to play his favourite scoop shot © AFP

The Dutch, chasing a huge target of 351 runs, could not get anywhere near the total and were bowled out for 195 in 47.3 overs. The silver lining for the minnows was a spirited knock of 76 by Tom de Grooth.

Grooth smacked one six and 10 fours in his 96-ball knock. He added 80 for the fifth wicket with Bas Zuiderent (38) and 62 for the seventh with Atse Buurman (25), but that was not enough.

For Sri Lanka, Dilhara Fernando took four wickets.

Sri Lanka, after winning the toss, made full use of a flat deck at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground. All batsmen got good hitting practice with Tillakaratne Dilshan (78), Thilan Samaraweera (60), Chamara Silva (54) and Chamara Kapugedera (50) making most of the opportunity. Captain Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene did not bat.

Explosive opener Dilshan and Upul Tharanga (47) laid the foundation of the big total hitting 117 runs off 104 balls. Dilshan struck 12 fours in his run-a-ball innings while Tharanga hit seven fours. Silva and Kapugedera then added 94 for the unbeaten fifth wicket.

The Netherlands tried seven bowlers but barring Mudassar Bukhari (2-52) and Pieter Seelsar (1-44) all conceded more than six runs an over.

Sri Lanka play West Indies in their next warm-up match while the Netherlands play Kenya Tuesday. —IANS

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