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Colombo: Sri Lanka became the first team to confirm its place in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy cricket tournament when it thrashed Holland by 206 runs in its second and final Group 'D' league match on Monday. Helped by a fine century from Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka piled up 292 for six, though not in the most authoritative fashion, after electing to bat and then skittled out Holland for a mere 86 runs in 29.3 overs for its second successive win in the tournament.

Sri Lanka, who had earlier defeated Pakistan by eight wickets in the opening game of the tournament, will take on the winner of Group 'A', comprising Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh, in the semi-final on September 27. Off spinner Muthiah Muralitharan ran through the inexperienced Holland batting line- up, claiming four wickets for 15 runs from just 5.3 overs. Only three Holland batsmen were able to move into the double figures with Tim de Leede, who earlier in the day had taken an unbelievable catch to dismiss Aravinda de Silva, top-scoring with 31. Holland lost its first three wickets for just four runs before de Leede and Reinout Scholte added 42 runs for the fourth wicket to put up a semblance of a fight. But both these batsmen got out within ten runs of each other and the Holland innings was all but over. Edgar Schiferli, the third batsman to score in double figures apart from de Leede and Scholte (12), hit Muralitharan for a four and a six before being stumped by Kumara Sangakkara off the same bowler. Schiferli, who scored 15, became the fifth victim of Sangakkara who had already taken four catches by then.

Earlier, Sri Lanka made short work of Holland's bowling attack to amass a huge total. Atapattu and captain Sanath Jaysuriya, who made run-a-ball 36 with six boundaries, put on 59 runs for the opening wicket in 9.4 overs before Jayasuriya drove straight into the hands of Bas Zuiderent at short covers. Atapattu was then associated in a 116-run second wicket stand with Sangakkara who made 41 from 68 balls with five boundaries. Sangakkara was clean bowled around his legs while trying to sweep a fuller delivery from spinner Adeel Raja. Raja was relatively the most impressive of the Holland bowlers, conceding 50 runs in his quota of overs, while taking two wickets. Even though Atapattu held on to his end, Sri Lanka lost a few more wickets during the last ten overs and was restricted to a total within the 300-run mark. It was not exactly a cakewalk for the Sri Lankans with Holland too having its moments of glory like the stunning one-handed running catch de Leede took at the long-on boundary to dismiss de Silva for 23.

Extras:
Atapattu slams 101 against Dutch; Lanka 292/6

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