It's not quite a case of going from the sublime to the ridiculous, but it was pretty close for the Netherlands today in Bulawayo as a poorly managed run chase saw them fall 21 runs short of Sri Lanka's total in their first Super Six match at the World Cup Qualifier.

Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka won the toss and chose to bat first, the first captain to do so in the tournament. Logan van Beek, the Dutch hero against the West Indies the other day, opened the bowling and was straight into the action with a wicket from the first ball of the match.

Three more wickets came quickly - two of them to van Beek - and Sri Lanka were in a hole at 34-4. Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya de Silva then put on 33 for the fifth wicket before Karunaratne was out for 33. Another 29 was added with the skipper, but when he was the sixth man out the Sri Lankan total was 96 and the Dutch would have been thinking about another famous win.

But in two partnerships that would prove to be crucial, de Silva put on 35 with Wanindu Hasaranga and 77 with Maheesh Theekshana. He eventually fell for 93 in the 47th over with Sri Lanka going on to rack up 213 before the final wicket fell in the following over.

What looked like a relatively striaghtforward chase for the Netherlands given their match against the West Indies quickly became tougher as Vikram Singh was caught from the second ball of the innings, with Max O'Dowd out for a golden duck from the first ball of the second over.

Wesley Baressi and Bas de Leede then added 77 over the next 13 overs with Baressi the next man out having scored 52. But most of the following batters began to bat bizarrely given the situation the Netherlands were in. When Baressi was out, they needed 125 and had 35 overs to get them in.

But they batted like they were chasing a much bigger total and just kept getting out to rash shots. Bas de Leede eventually scored 41 and captain Scott Edwards was the only other player to bat anywhere near senisibly, scoring an unbeaten 67 from 68 balls.

Logan van Beek is bowled in the Dutch innings against Sri Lanka (ICC)

Nobody else stayed with him for any significant lenght of time though and the last wicket fell at the end of the 40th over with the Dutch having score 192. The 21 run margin definitely flattered them - they were well and truly beaten.

They have the weekend to prepare for their next game - against Oman on Monday. Sri Lanka are back in action on Sunday when they take on Zimbabwe in a match that will likely decide one of the spots in this year's World Cup.