ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, Group 2, Old Trafford

Scotland 151-6 (20 overs): S Bryce 47* (33); Ayodhya 2-34

Sri Lanka 154-7 (19.5 overs): Athapaththu 33 (16); Fraser 2-25

Sri Lanka won by three wickets

Scorecard; Table

Sri Lanka kept their slim hopes of reaching a first Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final alive with a nail-biting three-wicket win over Scotland at Old Trafford.

Set 152 to win after a late surge from Sarah Bryce and Ailsa Lister powered Scotland to a competitive total, Sri Lanka threatened to throw away a bright start, slumping from 57-1 to 78-4 and later 118-6, before sneaking over the line with one ball to spare.

Sri Lanka, who move into third place with their third win of the tournament, need West Indies to lose heavily to Ireland and New Zealand to lose to England on Saturday to advance from Group 2 on net run-rate.

Sri Lanka broke the back of their chase in the opening six overs, racing to 65-2 with Chamari Athapaththu taking Gabriella Fontenla’s only over for 18 runs and Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama both tucking into Katherine Fraser’s bowling.

Athapaththu’s departure in the final over of the powerplay, bowled by Fraser for a free-scoring 33 (16), halted their momentum with no other batter able to match her firepower.

Captain Kathryn Bryce struck twice to remove Perera and Samarawickrama, either side of Fraser trapping Hansima Karunaratne lbw, before Kirstie Gordon accounted for Kavisha Dilhari to leave Sri Lanka needing 34 runs off the final five overs with four wickets in hand.

In a chaotic finale, Kaushani Nuthyangana smacked Rachel Slater for consecutive boundaries before picking out Lister at mid-off – while Nilakshi de Silva was dropped by Fontenla in the penultimate over.

With three runs required from three balls, Slater pulled up injured and was replaced by Priyanaz Chatterji. Sugandika Dasanayaka slashed the penultimate ball of the innings for four to rescue the win for Sri Lanka.

Earlier, Scotland enjoyed a brisk start of their own, racing to 21-0 after two overs after a flurry of early boundaries from Darcey Carter, but the runs dried up after de Silva took a spectacular diving catch at mid-off to remove Fraser at the back end of the powerplay.

They struggled against Sri Lanka’s spin-heavy attack, labouring to 100-3 after 15 overs, and although they burst into life at the death, with Sarah Bryce smacking an unbeaten 47 (33) and putting on 53 runs off 32 balls with the equally aggressive Lister for the fourth wicket, it was too little, too late.