Georgia Plimmer and Amelia Kerr lead New Zealand to a convincing win over Sri Lanka in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024, leaving Sri Lanka winless in the tournament.

ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 SL-W vs NZ-W

Georgia Plimmer and Amelia Kerr has left the Sri Lanka team without a win

Georgia Plimmer scored an impressive half-century in New Zealand’s chase © Getty

Sri Lanka scored 115/5 in 20 overs, where as New Zealand scored 118/2 in 17.3 overs.

So, finally New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets.

New Zealand secured a dominant victory over Sri Lanka in Sharjah, leaving the Asia Cup champions winless in the T20 World Cup.

Despite high hopes following their continental championship triumph, Sri Lanka has never advanced beyond the group stages in this tournament.

Their batting was a significant disappointment, especially in this final group match, where they managed only 115 runs.

Georgia Plimmer played a crucial role with a brisk 53, while Amelia Kerr contributed an unbeaten 34 and took two wickets, helping New Zealand chase down the total with 15 balls to spare.

However, New Zealand remains third in the standings, still trailing India on Net Run Rate.

Interestingly, after choosing to bat first, Sri Lanka delivered their best performance of the tournament, surpassing the 100-run mark for the first time.

Much of this improvement was due to captain Chamari Athapaththu finding form after a disappointing start to her final T20 World Cup.

Sri Lanka capitalized on a sluggish beginning from New Zealand, with Rosemary Mair delivering a no-ball and two wides in her first over, yielding 10 runs.

By the end of the third over, New Zealand had bowled four wides, with Lea Tahuhu contributing two more.

During this period, Athapaththu and Vishmi Gunaratne hit a boundary each, taking the score to 25.

New Zealand’s first breakthrough came when Eden Carson slipped a ball under Gunaratne’s bat.

This brought together Athapaththu and another key batter, Harshitha Madavi, who formed a solid partnership.

Although the scoring rate slowed, Sri Lanka reached 57 for 1 at the halfway point, with Athapaththu finding her rhythm, including two boundaries off Leigh Kasperek.

The 48-run stand ended in the 14th over when Amelia Kerr dismissed Athapaththu, who, after facing two dot balls, attempted a shot against the legspinner and was beaten by the delivery’s slowness, losing her stumps.

Shortly after, Sri Lanka lost Madavi, with Kerr taking a sharp catch at extra cover off Kasperek’s bowling.

In the final five overs, Sri Lanka managed just two boundaries and none in the last three, as Kasperek and Kerr each claimed another wicket.

This lack of late innings flourish left Sri Lanka five runs short of the target deemed par by Sophie Devine at the toss, proving insufficient to challenge their opponents.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s task was to chase down the target quickly enough to improve their Net Run Rate (NRR) and surpass India’s position in the tightly contested Group A standings, needing to reach the score in 14.3 overs.

They appeared intent on securing the win early, with the first boundary of their chase coming as late as the 25th ball.

Plimmer, who struck that four, accelerated the scoring and reached 31 off 22 by the seventh over.

Suzie Bates struggled with her timing and was dismissed for 17 off 22 balls, bringing Kerr to the crease.

The two then established a steady partnership to put the game out of Sri Lanka’s reach.

Plimmer reached her half-century off 41 balls before falling to Athapaththu in the 15th over.

At that point, New Zealand needed just 20 runs for victory, which they achieved with relative ease.

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