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Dushmantha Chameera will not play in Sri Lanka’s last Group A match against Netherlands, which they would almost surely need to win to advance to the World Cup’s Super 12s stage.

In a crushing victory over UAE that improved Sri Lanka’s hopes of moving on, Chameera took 3 for 15, although he was unable to complete his spell due to a calf injury. Professor Arjuna de Silva, who is in charge of Sri Lanka’s medical operations, later confirmed that Chameera would miss the match against the Netherlands and that it was uncertain whether he would play in the remaining games of the tournament.

Danushka Gunathilaka, who missed the UAE match, and Pramod Madushan are both scheduled to undergo scans for hamstring injuries; however, Sri Lanka’s medical staff is optimistic that the latter’s injury is not too serious.

After Sri Lanka’s bowlers controlled the encounter against UAE, dismissing the opposition for 73 in 18 overs, the loss of Chameera and, presumably, Madushan, is a blow. After the team’s batting fell from 117 for 3 in the 15th over to only record 152 for 8, there are still questions about the team’s performance.

Sri Lanka’s middle order enters the last match of the qualification stage substantially short of runs after also having a dismal batting performance against Namibia. Given that temperatures in Geelong have routinely dropped into the low teens over the previous two weeks, coach Chris Silverwood speculates that this may have something to do with the weather.

At least the bowlers gave a thorough performance on Tuesday. Before the spinners destroyed UAE’s middle and lower order batsmen, seamers Chameera and Madushan bowled away the top order.

“I think we adjusted pretty well today,” Silverwood said. “In the first game we didn’t read the conditions particularly well, and we certainly didn’t grasp them. We’re not hiding from that. That’s something that we spoke about in the debrief quite honestly.

“They’ve faced facts and come out today, and applied themselves much better. The track was a little bit slow. We saw that if the bowlers bang it in hard, it’s very difficult to get them away. So we have to be patient, we have to build innings, and for the majority of today we did that.”

At the beginning of the game, Sri Lanka’s top three also created a solid foundation. The best batsman for Sri Lanka was opener Pathum Nissanka, who scored one run (74 off 60) more than the entire UAE squad. He advanced gradually through the first few overs before hitting boundaries late in the innings to increase his strike rate on a challenging surface.

“Pathum at the top of the order played a real match-winning innings. He should be very proud of himself for what he’s done, helping the team get across the line.”