Sri Lanka breeze into ICC Champions Trophy semi-final

Sri Lanka breezed into the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy by crushing their former colonial masters by a massive 206 runs.

The Netherlands, playing their first official One-Day International since the 1996 World Cup, were bowled out for just 86 after the hosts racked up 292/6 in their innings.

Sri Lanka are now expected to play Australia - assuming the world champions defeat Bangladesh - in the second semi-final on September 27.

Despite the convincing margin of victory, Sri Lanka will have been disappointed by a lacklustre performance by their middle-order - victory against the formidable Australians will require a significant improvement.

Before the game, record scores had been predicted and at one stage they looked set for a total well in excess of 300, but Sri Lanka slipped from 175/1 to 247/5 as they tried to accelerate during the latter part of their innings.

But Dutch inexperience was more brutally exposed when they batted. After the first 19 balls of their innings they had lost three wickets with only four runs on the board.

They recovered briefly - no doubt breathing a sign of relief as they passed the world's lowest one-day score, the 38 scored by Zimbabwe last year at the SSC - with No 4 batsman Tim de Leede (31) and Reinout Scholte (12) adding 42 in 61 balls.

However, having safely negotiated the fast bowlers, they ran into difficulties against the spinners with off-spinner Kumar Dharmasena, picked ahead of leg-spinner Upul Chandana, finding the edge of Scholte's bat in his first international over since the Sharjah Cup last April.

And after Dharmasena clean bowled Luuk van Troost for a duck and de Leede was athletically caught by wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara off a top edge, Muttiah Muralitharan took just five balls to grab his first wicket.

But Sri Lanka's master spinner did not have it all his way, as the confident Edgar Schiferi (15) confirmed his budding reputation as a fearless stroke-player, crashing a four and six in Muralitharan's second over.

Schiferi's entertaining resistance though was ended soon after, paving the way for Muralitharan to wrap up the innings to finish with four for 15 from 5.3 overs.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya had won the toss and batted first, a decision that had annoyed those hoping for an early finish.

Jayasuriya was once again in good form, racing to 36 from 36 balls. However, he missed out on another large score when he skewed a catch into the covers, an unexpected dismissal that prompted wild celebrations in the Dutch camp.

It was no surprise that Marvan Atapattu - who has built a reputation on cashing in when conditions are favourable and the opposition is weak - made the most of an opportunity to find some form before facing the Australians.

The right-hander top scored with 101 from 118 balls, hitting just eight fours along the way. It was his fifth one-day century and his first for 18 months.

He added 116 runs in 127 balls with Sangakkara (41) before Sri Lanka started to lose their way.

Sangakkara was bowled by off-spinner Adeel Raja, Aravinda de Silva (23) was brilliantly caught by de Leede on the boundary - the catch of the tournament thus far - and Mahela Jayawardene (14) was run out by a direct hit from Bas Zuiderent at cover.

Russel Arnold capitalised on a rare chance in the middle, scoring an unbeaten 22 before running out of overs.

Earlier, Jaywardene had been involved in the first real controversy created by the ICC's experiment with technology as he was reprieved by the television umpire Russel Tiffen despite the field umpire David Orchard initially raising his finger after an appeal for lbw.

According to the criteria laid down by the ICC for referring lbw decisions, the third umpire can only provide guidance on whether the ball pitched outside leg, whether it hit bat before pad and whether it was too high - not whether it was going to hit the stumps.

On this occasion the ball was drifting down the leg-side, but height was not a problem and it didn't pitch outside leg or hit the bat. Thus, according to the confusing ICC guidelines, Orchard should have raised his finger for the second time.

However, whether the correct process had been adhered to or not, the right decision was made in the end, a fact that the experiment's supporters will only be too happy to point out.