Ireland suffered the agony of a last-over defeat in Cape Town last night as a batting collapse and nightmare fielding display of fumbles and drops allowed the West Indies to scramble to a six-wicket victory in the women’s T20 World Cup.

Superb batting by Orla Prendergast and Gaby Lewis built the platform for an unassailable total but after losing seven wickets for 22 runs in the last five overs the Girls in Green had to settle for a barely competitive 137-9.

The key batter in a depleted West Indies’ line-up was skipper Hayley Matthews and she made Ireland pay for dropping her on eight by striking 66 not out to lead her side home with one ball to spare.

“The best players may give you one opportunity and if you don't take it, they’ll take the game away from you,” skipper Laura Delany said.

“The last five overs is something that we will look at from our innings, and then in the field, we just have to be better if we want to compete with the best sides in the world.”

Prendergast has been Ireland’s stand out player in the tournament and after Amy Hunter holed out in the second over she was quickly into her stride with trademark skips down the pitch and strong arm drives through the off-side.

Remarkably the Pembroke all-rounder averages a boundary every six balls and while a couple of her early fours were streaky, she found the middle more often than not, including an enormous six over midwicket.

Lewis played an intelligent support role as the pair added 90 for the second wicket, a record for Ireland in T20 World Cups.

Prendergast fell for 61 from 47 balls when a leading edge was held at extra cover but Lewis maintained the momentum with one of her six boundaries a gorgeous high-elbow hold-the-pose-for-the-cameras straight drive for four.

At 115-2 after 15 overs, the Girls in Green would have expected something in excess of 160 but Lewis missed a straight one and was lbw for 38 and only Eimear Richardson of the remaining batters reached double figures.