Sri Lanka put in a thorough performance to secure their spot in the Super 12s ©AFP
Did the real Sri Lanka team stand up in beating the Netherlands in Geelong on Thursday? Will the side who shambled to defeat against Namibia on Sunday be remembered as aberrations who took a wrong turn on their way out of a bad dream and ended up bang in the middle of Kardinia Park?
No, not least because only three of Sunday's XI - Danushka Gunathilaka, Pramod Madushan and Dushmantha Theekshana - did not feature on Thursday. And because the two matches were played on the same pitch, albeit that the ball came onto the bat more fluidly on Thursday.
But you would be forgiven for believing the Sri Lankans who strode the field like they owned it only four days after they had looked like they had never been out of their own backyards had not been introduced to each other.
Neither a first-baller suffered by Dhananjaya de Silva, who was trapped in front by Paul van Meekeren - with a delivery that the gizmos said would have missed leg stump - immediately after van Meekeren had yorked Pathum Nissanka, nor the fact that only two Lankans reached 30 could derail the Asian express on its way to 162/6.
Kusal Mendis batted through six partnerships for his 44-ball 79, a commanding innings that endured into the last over and lent authority to a batting line-up who had shown none of that quality in being dismissed for 108 on Sunday. Max O'Dowd's unbeaten 71 kept the Dutch in touch with the game at least theoretically, but Sri Lanka's
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