Women's T20 World Cup: Sri Lanka's historic 5-wicket win pushes New Zealand on verge of elimination

New Zealand's T20 World Cup defence has gone from bad to worse as they suffered their second successive defeat of the tournament against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, June 16 at The Rose Bowl, Southampton. After opting to bat first, New Zealand posted a decent score of 150/6 in their allotted 20 overs, riding on splendid knocks from Amelia Kerr (45 off 36) and Sophie Devine (45 off 30).

For Sri Lanka, Kavisha Dilhari (2/35) scalped two wickets, while Chamari Athapaththu (1/21, 3 overs), Mithali Ayodhya (1/24) and Nimasha Meepage (1/26) picked one wicket each. In reply, Sri Lanka chased down the target in 19.4 overs, riding on a brilliant half-century from Nilakshika Silva.

For the White Ferns, Nensi Patel (2/23) emerged as the pick of the bowlers while Bree Illing (1/33, 4 over) also scalped one wicket. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka registered their maiden victory over New Zealand in World Cup history and have put them in a precarious position in the Group B points table. It was also the first victory for the island nation in the Women's T20 World Cup after suffering seven successive defeats dating back to 2023.

Top run-scorer of the Match

Top wicket-taker of the Match

Player of the Match

Nilakshika Silva was adjudged Player of the Match for her stellar half-century. She registered crucial partnerships with Kavisha Dilhari and Kaushani Nuthyangana. It was just the second half-century of her T20I career for Silva, who also became the oldest player (36y 262d) to score a half-century in the Women's T20 World Cup.

She remained unbeaten on 54* (37), scoring five fours and a six and comfortably took Sri Lanka over the line.

Turning Point

New Zealand once again had a poor day in the field as they dropped three chances. However, the one that hurt them the most was of Nilakshika Silva, who was given a reprieve on one. On the fourth ball of the tenth over, Silva ended up top edging Amelia Kerr towards short fine leg, where Bree Illing dropped a simple chance.

The opportunity ended up haunting New Zealand big time as Silva played the innings of her life to script a memorable victory for her team.

What did the captains say:

Winning Captain, Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka women):  

(Where this win ranks) It is a good win, because it was a must-win for us. As a team, as a batting unit, we executed our plans. Nilakshika played well, and the youngster Nuthyangana as well - she has not been in good form but did the job today. Our fielding coach has done a good job. We have struggled a lot with our fielding but today, we did a good job. Every game is crucial for us. NZ is one of the best teams and the world champions, and the tournament favourites. We beat them, and it means we can beat anyone in the comp - we just need to execute our plans. We need to improve our batting and our bowling a little bit as well.

Losing Captain, Amelia Kerr (New Zealand women):

How do you sum up the performance today? Yeah, I thought the wicket was a touch slower, and the nature of their bowling attack with those lower release arms probably made stroke-making a little bit tougher. That said, I thought 150 was a good score on this wicket, especially with the boundaries being pretty big. I think we had enough runs on the board. Of course, we could have gotten more and would have liked more, but ultimately, our fielding let us down today. What was the difference between the two teams other than your fielding? I thought they ran incredibly well between the wickets. They were really sharp toward the end, turning singles into twos. That final partnership did an excellent job of finishing the innings for them. Looking back at our innings, if I could have batted a couple more overs with Sophie [Devine] to build an even bigger platform before getting out, it would have really helped the team. What are the plans for the rest of the tournament? Look, we still have three games to go, and playing for our country is always incredibly important. We are still alive in this competition. We just have to pick ourselves up. For me, the biggest area for improvement is definitely the fielding. I actually think we're in a good place as a side—we’re batting well, bowling in good areas, and creating opportunities. But as they say, catches win matches. No one means to drop them, but that's two games in a row now where our fielding hasn't been up to a high enough standard. Thank you