Sri Lanka eye first win against upbeat Netherlands

"Netherlands are sick of just competing, they are hungry to win. Associates are closing the gap between themselves and the bigger teams but need more opportunities," the team's former coach Ryan Campbell reacted soon after the Netherlands notched a stunning win over South Africa on Tuesday.

Campbell's sentiments echo the voices of the 6,000 odd who play cricket in the Netherlands, all of whom want more chances and consequently wins which will also earn them respect in the cricketing world.

The ongoing ODI World Cup is an opportunity for Scott Edwards and Co, especially after their win against South Africa. With raised hopes they are determined to cause another upset against 1996 champions Sri Lanka in a day-game here on Saturday.

"I don't know if I'd call it an upset. We've competed against Sri Lanka multiple times in the qualifiers and we fell short. We're here to play well and win. I wouldn't call it an upset," Netherlands batter Teja Nidamanuru said on Friday.

"The response to our win against South Africa was great back home and now everyone expects us to keep winning to get the attention and respect of the world."

He added that the team was happy to win against South Africa, but it wasn't the team's perfect performance. "We're very happy to obviously win against South Africa but I don't think we gave a perfect performance together against the Proteas. We've been playing some good cricket but in patches."

He, however, admitted that their batting in the last two games was not up to the mark and that they needed to make amends. "Our batting didn't live up to the expectations," he said.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, are coming in after losing their first three games. The islanders will be eager to claim their first win of the tournament, but they have plenty to worry about on the bowling front as barring pacer Dilshan Madushanka, who has been their leading wicket-taker so far with seven wickets, others are yet to impress.

Their batters have done well, having scored 300-plus runs in their first two matches but the bowlers failed to defend those totals against South Africa and Pakistan. The only time their batting struggled was against Australia where they could post just little over 200.

"There is pressure to win a game. We haven't got any points so far. We have been performing on and off but we are yet to produce a tidy game. We have addressed issues and have trained in the last couple of days with a new captain in place. The group is positive and we are looking forward," Sri Lanka assistant coach Naveed Nawaz said.

"Losing Dasun is a big loss. Any team losing their captain will have an impact. We have no control over things that are happening in the tournament. So we are not thinking about it," Nawaz said.

"We are more focused on our game and how we can come on a day and try and have a tidy performance and make fewer mistakes in the middle as the batting, bowling, and fielding groups go and execute our plans. We are focused on that."

The red clay pitch here has so far seen the team batting first having the advantage as the ball has been moving under the lights. But in a day game, it is expected to behave differently.