Southampton: Sri Lanka suffered a 5-wicket defeat to defending champions New Zealand in the seventh match of the 2026 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at The Rose Bowl on Tuesday.
Opting to bat first in the second match of their title defence, New Zealand piled on 150 for 6 in 20 overs with help from captain Mellie Kerr and veteran Sophie Devine.
Kerr hit five fours off 36 balls, while Devine took six fewer balls and hit several fours and a six. Both added 43 runs for the third wicket.
Apart from them, right-arm opener Georgia Plimmer and middle-order batsman Maddie Green contributed significantly to the White Ferns’ total with 18 runs each.
Kavisha Dilhari took 2 wickets for 35 runs in her four overs for Sri Lanka, while Nimasha Meepage, Sukanthika Kumari, Mithali Ayodhya and skipper Samari Athapatu bowled well with a scalp each.
Chasing a tough target of 151 runs, the Sri Lankan team overcame the middle order collapse to hit the winning runs on the fourth delivery of the last over.
The island nation got off to a spirited start in the chase as their opening pair of Vishmi Gunaratne and Athapatu added 45 runs inside the batting powerplay.
The opening partnership was broken on the final delivery of the batting powerplay with the demise of the Sri Lankan captain who dominated the stand with 27 off just 19 balls.
His opening partner Gunaratne followed suit exactly an over later and returned after scoring 17 off 19 balls to reduce the total to 47/2.
Harshita Samarawickrama (five) and Hasini Perera (two) were dismissed cheaply as Sri Lanka lost two wickets in quick succession, resulting in a further slump to 55/4 in 8.3 overs.
Following the collapse, Silva put on a 50-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Dilhari, who contributed 17 off 16 balls until he was run out in the 15th over.
Silva was joined by Kaushini Nutyangana in the middle and the duo batted smartly to post an unbeaten 48-run partnership that guided Sri Lanka to their first win of the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup 2026.
Nilakshika Silva remained the top scorer with an unbeaten 54 off 37 balls with 5 fours and a six and was adjudged Man of the Match.
On the other hand, Nutyangana scored an unbeaten 24 off 14 balls with 3 fours.
New Zealand’s pick of the bowlers was Nancy Patel, who took 2 wickets for just 23 runs in her four overs, while Bree Illing picked up a wicket.
The narrow win helped Sri Lanka level with England, Scotland and the West Indies on points, but a low net run rate of 2.040 left them fourth in the Group A standings of the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup.
New Zealand, on the other hand, suffered their second straight defeat in the 12-team tournament and are fifth in the rankings due to a relatively higher net run rate than Ireland, which is bottom.