It was winner takes all this evening at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi and hosts UAE gave Sri Lanka an almighty scare, but the tournament favourites were able to prevail and qualify for the World Cup.

Put into bat, Sri Lanka scored 149-6 from their 20 overs, Vishmi Gunaratne top scoring with 45. Contributions also came from Harshitha Samarawickrama (24) and Chamari Athapaththu (21). Vaishnave Mahesh and Esha Oza both took two wickets for the home side.

UAE skipper Oza then played what for a moment looked to be the most important innings of her life as the hosts got close to pulling off a famous upset. After losing her opening partner Theertha Satish for a first over duck, she added 66 for the second wicket with Khushi Sharma before the latter was out for 22.

Oza carried on, bringing up her 50 from 34 balls and adding 37 for the third wicket with Kavisha Egodage. When Egodage was out for 16, UAE needed 46 from 5.2 overs and with Oza well set, they had an upset in their sights.

Sadly for the home side, Oza was out in the very next over having scored 66 from 44 balls. There was no further score of note as UAE were then kept to 134-7, losing by 15 runs. But just for a moment they dared to dream. Why do we still only have a ten team women's T20 World Cup?