Kusal's catch-up. O'Dowd as Thor. UAE's last beautiful winter. And Wiese walks off into the sunset.

There was an inevitably of Sri Lanka qualifying for the main tournament. The first game was the coldest cup of coffee Sri Lankans had drunk. Since every Sri Lankan back home has been contacting their Melbourne friends, trying to work out what the weather for Geelong will be like over the last few days. But a game against the UAE and then their bunnies the Netherlands, was a pretty good combination for them to come home with.

But they were made to work for it. This was probably the closest match they've ever had against the Netherlands, and if anyone sat with O'Dowd for a while, it could have been far closer. Even the UAE game, they should have made more but the hat-trick collapse stopped that.

But they're through, fuck you Geelong weather, your lack of drops took one hell of a beating.

Wanindu Hasaranga's 3/28 might have ensured that the Dutch never really got close to giving Sri Lanka a scare, but they really needed someone to step up and make some proper runs and thankfully for Sri Lanka Kusal Mendis proved to be that man.

Which is weird, because in his T20 career for Sri Lanka so far, he has been largely dogshit. Averaging a mindnumblingly low 20 runs per innings before today. And his strike rate was 126. (Although he's over 30 when he opens, which tells you how bad he has been when he doesn't).

Coming into the tournament on the back of two consecutive ducks in Sri Lanka's last two Asia Cup games. Then making just six against Namibia in the first game and failing to make the most of a good start against UAE.

His 79 was almost exactly half of all Sri Lanka's runs against the Netherlands. It did come slow to start - they were still only going at 6 an over at the 11th over. Mendis played the catch-up knock, finishing with five 4s and five 6s and a strike rate of 179.54 to take Sri Lanka to a more than defendable 162.

At the end of this game, it was like watching a doomed horror movie.

Roelof van der Merwe was so hurt that he was close to giving birth on the field. But the true hero was Max O'Dowd, who stood proud as the bodies of his batting teammates were strewn around him. Even with no one left but a crooked partner and a bunch of bowlers, O'Dowd kept swinging gamely. The Netherlands had lost, but O'Dowd had not been told.

He would end up with 73 from 51 balls. No one else scored over Edwards 21 runs.

Max O'Dowd was born in Auckland and is the son of a first class cricketer. He has played age-group cricket in Auckland, and then for their A team. He played for Otago's A team as well. In the UK he has played seconds cricket for Sussex and Nottinghamshire.This is a guy there and thereabouts with professional cricket his whole life. And through his mum's Dutchness he qualified for them.

This has been his big chance, and since making his debut, he has played a lot of cricket for them. I don't know where he would be on their depth chart of batting talent. He's probably below Ryan ten Doeschate, Roelof van der Merwe, Colin Ackermann and Tom Cooper. If you look at the future, Vikram Singh and Bas de Leede might also end up better.

But the biggest difference is that O'Dowd always plays for the Dutch. When the others have been busy, he is always there, and when he does, he makes runs. Since his debut, he has nearly 1000 runs more than second best. But, some of that is that he has been available more.

That's not the case in the last two World Cups. And he's outscored everyone. So let's look at the last two World Cups. Netherlands have three fifties in them, and they are all O'Dowd's.

He also has over three times as many runs as the next guy on the list. O'Dowd was Netherland's batting today, but he has been for two straight World Cups.

But today was his masterpiece. Amazingly, the Geelong crowd didn't take off their underwear and throw it onto the pitch to celebrate him.

And yet the dutch lost. Ultimately it was the Netherlands middle order that let them down, again. They nearly cost them in both the needlessly tight chases in their first games and were unable to fire once again against Sri Lanka.

However there can be no faulting the effort of one of those experienced heads, Roelof van der Merwe.

Struggling with what was apparently a back injury but looking more like he'd just been dragged from a car crash and then forced to put on pads and a helmet and stagger out to the middle. Van der Merwe bravely came out as the last wicket to try and help O'Dowd pull off an unlikely win, and although he was unsuccessful (and nearly run out on multiple occasions due to not really being able to move at all) nobody can say the 37-year-old didn't give his all

The Dutch were humiliated last tournament. It wasn't that they didn't make the second round; it was they barely turned up for the first one. Curtis Campher took four wickets in four balls in their first game, and I think that was the highlight in some ways.

This time they kept UAE down to under a run-a-ball, and they just snuck home in a dodgy chase. Then they kept Namibia down to a run-a-ball and just snuck home in a dodgy chase. Against Sri Lanka here their bowlers again did well. Sri Lanka didn't bat them out of the game. But with O'Dowd on his own, they couldn't chase the total. It was heartbreaking - for about four hours - to think they went 2-1 and still lost. But even if they had gone, they certainly gave it their all.

It's worth mentioning their bowlers. No one has hit them much off the square. A teenage spinner, two county pros, and two part-time spin options all went at less than a run-a-ball. Their young all rounder held his own, and picked up two player of the match awards as well. Even if they had gone out, they won more than they lost, literally and metaphorically.

And they made it through to the next round. They had a hell of a Thursday in Geelong, and trust me, I've had some weird Thursdays there myself. But they had to watch Roelef and O'Dowd fight until the lights were turned out. Only to get a Beautiful Winter gift from their friends in the UAE.

Not that David Wiese didn't give it everything to ruin the Orange dream. The big man with the axe grip dragged Namibia towards a total they really had no reason to be that close too. When he somehow came up short, he looked devastated. Barely leaving the field before bowing his head in the dugout.

Namibia twice in this tournament had to pull back in innings from the edge of a cliff. They managed it against Sri Lanka, but couldn't do it against UAE.

That tail should be given some sort of medal of honour from their government. They gave everything, with bat & ball.

If the Dutch had a hell of a day, then the Namibian cricketers just lived a lifetime in a week. This World Cup started with them beating Sri Lanka, ending with them losing to UAE. Which I suppose is a lot like what happens in real life.

Most of their issues is the top of their batting.

Usually your top order carries you, have a look at the runs here.

They are all from numbers their top three run scoring positions this tournament were five, six and seven. Oh, and the openers here, I didn't separate them,  so that means that the number eight actually outscored the openers when you split them.

Despite that amazing win in the first game, Namibia won't make the final round two tournaments in a row. Thought watching Wiese carry the tail, it certainly wasn't for lack of trying.

I don't know if all things considered, it was a beautiful winter for the UAE team. But I know they were not very good in 2015, and this is a new team they are rebuilding on the fly. And they were coming to Australia with almost no experience there. And they were outstanding at times in this tournament.

To get a win is huge. Their first in T20 World Cups and only their second in all World Cups after a 1996 win over the Netherlands. The team that lost a third of their squad trying to qualify for the previous tournament really stood up here. They have a leggie that people will want to see more, some decent seamers, and some top-order batters as well. And Junaid Siddique gave us a bloody big six followed by a lovely pose. Winning a game was the best-case scenario I had for them, and they went very close to winning two.

This was a good tournament for the men who used to wear grey.

​​Forget Bazball it's all about Basilball now. Basil Hameed's all round performance helping UAE to their first World T20 win, scoring a very useful unbeaten 25 off 14 to get UAE to 148 and picking up crucial early wickets to put Namibia under pressure early on, finishing with figures of 2/17.

But where does he rank among cricket's illustrious Basils? We had him ranked third best cricket Basil for the mood board.

So Australia have finally found a way to get Cameron Green into their squad after his breakout T20 international performances. Has anyone checked whether George Bailey was seen tampering with the Josh Inglis golf club that exploded?

Australia's current backup keeper is Warner if there is a problem in a warm up match, Or they could use Mitchell Starc who was a keeper when he was a kid. I hope he opens the bowling, then bowls his four straight up, only to swap with Warner like he would have in under-12 cricket.

Don't get too excited for the 'Super 12' stage of the tournament. At least not according to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology who are predicting an 80% chance of rain for Sunday evening's blockbuster clash between India and Pakistan.

So too will the ICC, who with 100,000 tickets sold for the game at the MCG could have to repay 7 million AUD in refunds if less than 10 overs are played. You can't trust Melbourne weather on an hour-by-hour basis, even less so when the rare climate phenomenon 'La Niña' is happening.

La Niña clearly isn't a cricket fan as for the matches in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, there's now a higher chance than usual of rainfall. If this does happen, we could always rush the entire tournament to New Zealand to make sure it goes ok. Or, they could use that ground in Melbourne with the big arse roof on it.