Bristol, June 23 (IANS) Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl first against Ireland in the 20th match of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 at the Bristol County Ground on Tuesday.

Chamari Athapaththu’s team have found the tournament tough. After an enormous defeat against England in their opening game, Sri Lanka produced an inspirational triumph over New Zealand.

But it has been a case of ‘win, lose, lose’ in the ensuing weeks, with the five-wicket collapse against West Indies proving to be a costly defeat as Sri Lanka lie bottom of the group with two points, with a negative run rate of -1.913.

Ireland’s T20 World Cup bid is all but over after three successive defeats in the group stage, although they have put up a good show in two games and could easily have won against the likes of the much-fancied New Zealand before finally succumbing by four runs on Wednesday night.

After winning the toss, Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu said, “Will bowl first because I’m confident about my bowling unit. Conditions should suit the bowlers. If we can bowl the right line and length, 140 should be chaseable. Every game is crucial for us. Unfortunately, we lost the last game. The thing is we lost a couple of wickets early in the last game and couldn’t execute our plans. No changes.”

While after losing the toss, Ireland skipper Gaby Lewis said, “Was happy to do either. I think there was a big discussion before this game about what to do, and to be honest, I was happy doing either. We like to set the tone in the power play, and yeah, hopefully we can do that today,” she said.

“I think if you look at the progression from game one to game two to game three, we’re moving in the right direction, and that’s what you want to see in tournaments like this. So I’m still looking for our first win and hopefully today’s the day,” she added.

Playing XIs

Sri Lanka: Vishmi Gunaratne, Chamari Athapaththu(c), Imesha Dulani, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshika Silva, Kaushani Nuthyangana(wk), Kawya Kavindi, Sugandika Kumari, Mithali Ayodhya, Nimasha Meepage

Ireland: Amy Hunter(wk), Gaby Lewis(c), Orla Prendergast, Rebecca Stokell, Louise Little, Leah Paul, Alice Tector, Arlene Kelly, Aimee Maguire, Cara Murray, Lara McBride

–IANS

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