If this was the Netherlands of 2007, or perhaps even 2011, Sybrand Engelbrecht may have soaked in the satisfaction of notching up an important personal milestone – a maiden ODI half-century – in a World Cup fixture. But the class of 2023 thinks differently.

Three nights after stunning South Africa in a sensational defence in Dharamsala, Netherlands appeared to have gone cold early on against Sri Lanka in Lucknow. Feet weren’t moving, wickets kept tumbling, the scoreboard appeared stalled and there was a sense of hopelessness to proceedings at 91 for 6. Teams of the past may have unravelled. This Netherlands team didn’t.

Engelbrecht and Logan van Beek hit sprightly half-centuries in a 130-run stand that brought them back into the game and gave their bowlers a score to defend. It wasn’t to be, though, despite the best efforts of their spinners who had combined figures of 4 for 125 off 28.1 overs in a defence of 263; Aryan Dutt was particularly impressive with his offspin that brought him 3 for 44.

“I must admit it’s still a bitter pill to swallow,” Engelbrecht said after Netherlands’ six-wicket loss to Sri Lanka in which he made 79. “Getting 260-odd after that 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.”

Engelbrecht was particularly effusive in his praise for van Beek, who struck his maiden half-century (59) on Saturday. His enterprise during their partnership helped take the pressure off Engelbrecht, who was the more industrious of the two.

“I think a lot of credit needs to go to Logan, I thought he batted brilliantly, and we just tried take it as deep as possible,” he said. “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 got 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.”

Would they have taken 262 after all that?

“At the halfway stage we thought we had a decent score,” Engelbrecht said. “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.”

In recent times, Sri Lanka have been a bit of a bogey team for the Netherlands. Twice at the World Cup Qualifiers in June, they fell short, including in the final. In both games, Netherlands were more than in with a shout at the halfway mark but collapsed at the first sign of spin. Which is why their revival on Saturday feels like a vindication of the work they’ve put in behind the scenes, including a long pre-World Cup camp in Bengaluru to acclimatise to different surfaces and conditions.

“We were very confident in the growth that we’ve shown as a team over the last 6-12 months,” Engelbrecht said. “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, 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.”

At a personal level, Engelbrecht has had to grapple with challenges, like several others in the team, of working a day job and balancing cricket on the sidelines. In the highest level of club cricket back in Netherlands, Engelbrecht has been a heavy scorer for Voorburg Cricket Club, who he helped steer to three straight finals.

Engelbrecht said he hadn’t made too many adjustments to his game coming into the World Cup. It’s understandable too, considering he didn’t think he even stood a chance of playing in the tournament and only came into the system after the Qualifiers in June-July.

“I haven’t made a lot of adjustments,” he said. “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.”