The bands arrive early at the R. Premadasa Stadium. Long before the first ball is bowled, trumpets and drums wedge themselves into the upper tiers between rows of yellow and blue seats. Down near the stairways and along the railings, where there is a little more room to sway, people dance unaware which band they are grooving to. There isn't one soundtrack here. There are several. Sometimes two in the same stand, bands playing over each other. The beats do not quite align, but they do not need to. The sound builds regardless.

It is very different from watching cricket in India, even though the geography is shared. There, the sound usually follows the game. Here, the music often leads it, closer to a wedding than a cricket match, drums rolling and trumpets cutting through even when nothing much has happened in the middle.

In that setting on Thursday (February 19), Tadiwanashe Marumani discovered that even basic communication required planning.

"My batting partner and I couldn't hear each other," he said. "Sometimes we were taking a bit of time off and meeting each other in the middle of the pitch. Sometimes, just a few signs to communicate. It was really loud out there."

It was his first time batting in an environment like that. "It was really exciting but, to be honest, it was also a bit nerve-racking. I told myself to stay in the moment." If this was loud, he added, India would be "2x."

That might be the more useful way to see this match for Zimbabwe. Less as a dead rubber in a group already decided and more as exposure to volume, to expectation, to what follows when a team begins to matter again.

A few nights earlier, they had beaten Australia with a performance that bordered on complete, the kind that makes observers sit up and then lean back, wondering whether it was circumstance or substance. Sri Lanka's start suggested the noise would once again belong to the hosts. They raced to 61 for 1 in the PowerPlay, with in-form Pathum Nissanka sweeping with assurance as the trumpets answered from either side of the press box without pause.

But the game did not remain in that register. Overs 7 to 15 brought only 61 runs and three boundaries. The drums did not slow down; the innings surely had.

Zimbabwe's spin shaped that shift. 13 overs across the night, nine of them through the middle, held Sri Lanka to 6.77 an over in that phase. Sikandar Raza sensed early that wrist-spin was finding more purchase than finger-spin and leaned into that reading.

"Because I bowled one of the last overs at the death, I told the boys that finger spinners weren't finding much, but wrist spinners were getting a bit of turn," Raza said at the post-match presentation. "They had two or three finger spinners and one wrist spinner, so I felt we could put them under pressure."

Ryan Burl's first ball drifted in, dipped, drew Kusal Mendis forward and spun past his bat. Marumani, who would later walk down the pitch to exchange hand signals in the chase, kept his composure to complete the stumping cleanly. Nissanka followed in the same passage, undone by an unforced error that went straight into Zimbabwean hands. They have barely dropped anything in this tournament.

Zimbabwe, in response, scored 79 for 2 between overs 7 and 15. Raza's 23 off 13 in that stretch shifted the tempo and his eventual 45 anchored the chase.

"I think today's target was very good," Kusal Mendis said afterwards. "Since we didn't take a wicket in the middle overs while bowling, we felt that this target wasn't enough. Zimbabwe batted better than we expected. They kept the pressure on our side, on our spinners."

The margin was six wickets, but the route was not straightforward. Assistant coach Dion Ebrahim called it what it was. "Today was quite a scrappy game," he said, retracing the swings. Sri Lanka surged, Zimbabwe pulled them back. Sri Lanka found momentum again at the death and Zimbabwe responded once more.

It was not close to the near-flawless execution against Australia, but that was precisely the gain. "The benefit of going through this game today in front of a fervous crowd here in Sri Lanka was great for our boys to experience," Ebrahim said, "but also then to get over the line in a little bit of a scrappy fighting way."

Two years ago, Zimbabwe had failed to qualify after losing to Uganda. Over the last 12 to 18 months, Ebrahim has spoken about incremental improvement, about key areas tightening even when wins did not always follow. "Whilst the results in terms of wins haven't quite been there, we've seen the incremental improvements over a long period of time."

Now the wins are stacking. Zimbabwe have topped a group that features former champions Australia and Sri Lanka. They have followed a statement win against Australia with a chase against the co-hosts that ranks among the highest completed at this venue.

It is not just the results that feel different; it is the language around them too. Raza spoke at the toss about habits, about putting themselves in winning positions and closing games, about perhaps "turning a few Sri Lankan fans into Zimbabwean ones."

For the Super 8s, Zimbabwe now move to India. The setting will be grander, the attention heavier, the reaction sharper. "It will be the big challenge of us making sure that we are not overwhelmed by the occasion and not overwhelmed by the crowds, the atmosphere," Ebrahim said, "especially when India take momentum, because they will."

Marumani called it "2x."

Colombo did not quieten for Zimbabwe. It did not need to. They settled inside the noise, took the game back when it drifted and finished it. Australia was not a spike. It was a sign. And if the volume rises from here, it will not be unfamiliar for Sikandar Raza and his men.