New Zealand completed a clinical victory over Sri Lanka in Sharjah to condemn the Asia Cup champions to a winless T20 World Cup campaign. It's a tournament that Sri Lanka have never progressed out of the group stages and hopes were high following their triumph in the continental championship. However, their batting proved to be a major letdown in the tournament, including in this final group game where they managed only 115. Georgia Plimmer struck a brisk 53, and Amelia Kerr added an unbeaten 34 to go with her two wickets helped chase the total down with 15 balls to spare. New Zealand, however, remain third in the standings, still behind India on Net Run Rate.

Interestingly, having opted to bat, Sri Lanka produced their best batting performance and breached the 100-mark for the first time in the tournament. A lot of it was down to their star and captain Chamari Athapaththu finding runs after her final T20 World Cup had not gone to plan over the first three games. The Asian champions were also beneficiaries of a lacklustre start from New Zealand with Rosemary Mair sending down a no-ball and two wides in her first over that cost 10 runs.

By the end of the third over, the wide count reached four with Lea Tahuhu sending down two more wides. Amidst all that, both Athapaththu and Vishmi Gunaratne hit a boundary each to take the score to 25. It was Eden Carson that managed to slip a ball under the onrushing Gunaratne's bat to give New Zealand the first breakthrough. That brought Athapaththu together with the other key batter, Harshitha Madavi.

The batting duo hunkered down to stitch a partnership and even though the scoring rate didn't live up to the early enterprise, the scoreboard kept ticking at a steady pace. At half-way point of the innings, Sri Lanka were 57 for 1 with Athapaththu growing into her innings, which included a pair of boundaries off Leigh Kasperek. The 48-run stand was eventually ended in the 14th over by Amelia Kerr as the demand for plumping up the scoring rate got to the Sri Lankan captain. After facing two dots, Athapaththu attempted to the legspinner Kerr and was beaten by the slowness of the delivery and lost her stumps.

The trouble for Sri Lanka was that they also lost Madavi five balls later, with Kerr now producing a sharp leaping catch at extra cover off the bowling of Kasperek.

Sri Lanka managed just two boundaries in the final five overs and none at all in the last three while both Kasperek and Kerr picked up another wicket each. The lack of a flourish at the end meant they finished five short of what Sophie Devine had reckoned was a par score at the toss. As it turned out, it wasn't enough to mount enough of a challenge on the opposition.

Still, the challenge for New Zealand was to see if they could haul the target down at a fast enough rate to surpass India's NRR in the delicately placed Group A standings. To do so, they had to get the score in 14.3 overs. Early on it became obvious that they wanted to ensure the win was not put in doubt and therefore the first boundary of the chase came as late as the 25th ball. Plimmer, who struck that four, quickly went up the gears and by the seventh over had 31 off 22.

Suzie Bates, however, struggled to find her timing and was eventually dismissed for a 22-ball 17. It brought Kerr to the middle and the pair went about putting the game beyond Sri Lanka's reach with a steady partnership. Plimmer got to her half-century off 41 balls before falling in the 15th over to Athapaththu. By then, New Zealand were only 20 runs away from victory, which they achieved with relative ease.

Brief scores:

Sri Lanka 115/5 in 20 overs (Chamari Athapaththu 35; Amelia Kerr 2-13, Leigh Kasperek 2-27) lost to New Zealand 118/2 in 17.3 overs (Georgia Plimmer 53; Amelia Kerr 34*) by eight wickets