Sybrand Engelbrecht and Sadeera Samarawickrama post-match press conference, Netherlands vs Sri Lanka, ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023

Netherlands player Sybrand Engelbrecht and Sri Lanka player Sadeera Samarawickrama (English and Sinhalese) post-match press conference, Netherlands vs Sri Lanka, ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.

Netherlands player Sybrand Engelbrecht 

Netherlands player Sybrand Engelbrecht post-match press conference transcript

[Reporter:] We saw you take that brilliant catch all the way back in 2008. A rollercoaster journey. You finally made it to the ODI World Cup for the Netherlands. So, if you could tell us about the journey, how it has been for you, the cricketing journey. Today you scored your maiden 50 as well. If you could talk about the journey from that catch in 2008 in Malaysia to the 50 you scored in Lucknow today, briefly.

[Sybrand Engelbrecht:] Yeah so, I played professionally in South Africa up until December 2016 and I moved into a corporate career. I studied finance. I went into the finance route with a company called Fairtree. I did my master's, my MBA as well and I've been working for the last seven years for the same company. And about three years ago, we moved from South Africa to the Netherlands and started playing again predominantly just to kind of make friends and integrate into the community. And it wasn't, I suppose, until Ryan Cook and the rest of the management took over that the interest came a little bit again. Only this year in July I think I became eligible to play for the Netherlands. So, I spoke to Ryan and asked, look, would you be interested in me putting my name in the hat? And he was brutally honest, because the team did really well to qualify and get us here. So, he said, absolutely the broader the pool, the better for them. And here we are, yeah. Very happy to be here. I must admit it's still a bitter pill to swallow. Getting to 60-odd after the start, we thought it was a very competitive score. Maybe the pitch got a little bit better, but I thought they controlled the innings really well. And we just didn't quite pitch up today with the ball, unfortunately. So, yeah, not the ideal result for us, but we'll move forward and we'll try and be better and learn from this as quickly as possible.

[Reporter:] So you walked out to bat when you guys were 91 for 6 I guess and then a massive partnership. So, what were the thoughts running through your mind at 91 for 6 and from there on when you played a commendable knock you know you took the responsibility on your shoulders so could you please sum up both the experiences?

[Sybrand Engelbrecht:] Yeah, look I think a lot of credit needs to go to Logan, I thought he batted brilliantly and we just try to extend and take it as deep as possible. So, we just told ourselves, if we can get to the last ten overs with six down, we're giving ourselves a good chance. So, for us, it really wasn't necessarily about trying to accumulate runs. It was just about making sure that we get into positive positions and pick up the runs when we could. But to try and lay a bit of a foundation for us to start scoring a little bit more freely to the back end, which we managed to do. So, happy with the partnership. I thought Logan batted brilliantly and together we just kind of kept on going. We were pretty calm out there and then on the 40th over we try to shift gears to try and accumulate a little bit more runs. So yeah, it was a good partnership for us, but it would have been fantastic to get a little bit more.

[Reporter:] 91 for 6 at one stage, and you really fought back well to up the score. What was the turning point of the match? Sri Lanka did really well to win the game after three defeats consecutively in this World Cup. What was your turning point of this match?

[Sybrand Engelbrecht:] At the halfway stage we thought we had a decent score. I don't think we would have taken it necessarily. I think, you know, the pitch definitely got better as the day went on, but I mean, I spoke to Max [O’Dowd] about it as well, and there was still consistently something in the pitch if we bowled the right areas. And I just thought we didn't string enough good balls together for long enough to put the Sri Lanka team under pressure. So, unfortunately, they were quite clinical in the way that they executed. They were able to absorb the pressure and then transfer the pressure onto us. So, I thought they batted really well and I think they just outplayed us.

[Reporter:] You lost to Sri Lanka twice during the qualifying tournament, and lost once again during the practice game. What was on your mind before this match today?

[Sybrand Engelbrecht:] We were very positive; we were very confident in the growth that we've shown as a team over the last 6 to 8 to 12 months. So, we're a better team now than we were when we played them at the Qualifier and we thought that if we stick to our processes, if we implement our plans and execute well for long enough, then we stood a really good chance. And I think there were periods in the game that you could definitely see that. So, credit goes to them. They played well. Unfortunately, we just couldn't string it together for long enough.

[Reporter:] You had a great season of top class - a century for Netherlands, coming into this World Cup. Can you take us through what that step up to international cricket is like and the adjustments that you've made, especially playing in India?

[Sybrand Engelbrecht:] Yeah, I haven't made a lot of adjustments. I've tried to keep it as simple as possible. I think when you do make the step up from club cricket in the Netherlands, you could maybe sometimes think, oh wow, I need to do so much more, you know, things differently. But the reality is, in our changing room we've got really good cricketers and we just need to back ourselves and our processes and stick to our plans. So, nothing really changed, it's just trying to be as clear as possible and to watch the ball as closely as possible. So, I'm happy that it came off for me personally today, but as I said, we've got really, really good cricketers in our changing room and it will show as we go along.

Sri Lanka player Sadeera Samarawickrama

Sri Lanka player Sadeera Samarawickrama post-match press conference transcript

[Reporter:] Dad must be very happy after this knock. My question is regarding Mahela Jayawardene’s presence in the team. You have been consistently working with him. You spoke about how he is helping you with the sweeps also. We saw it today. If you could talk about how important the role of Mahela is in the dressing room and how it has helped you as a batter with him around.

[Sadeera Samarawickrama:] Yeah, we know he is a legend so we can get any advice from him like in this kind of tournament - he knows how to handle big situations. So we go to him and we ask anything he give advice to us. So I think really happy to work with him

[Reporter:] Can you talk about batting in the middle overs? It seemed like there was still something in the pitch for the bowlers. You guys showed great patience, you and Charith. So, just can you talk about what discussions you had in the middle when it got a little tough after Nissanka?

[Sadeera Samarawickrama:] Yeah it was really tough in the middle part, because the ball was whipping at times, so myself and Charith - we thought that it's not going to be easy in the latter part, so we have to bat well in the middle overs. So I think our plan is to take the game deeper. I think we got the singles and all that, so I think we stuck to our basics, that's it.

[Reporter:] You kind of anchored the chase right being part of multiple 50 plus partnerships and still stranded on 91 unable to complete that century. Is it bothering you that the 100 didn't come up and since now you have points on the table, what shall be the approach in the upcoming games?

[Sadeera Samarawickrama:] Actually, I didn't look up to my scores because we needed a win. So that's the main part so I think as a team we did really well today and as individual I really happy that I got 91 so unfortunately not 100 - but it's good to be in the winning team every time so I think I'm really happy about the team performance.

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