Sharjah: Opener Georgia Pilmar's half-century and Amelia Kerr's all-round performance helped New Zealand put pressure on India by defeating Sri Lanka by eight wickets in a Group A match of the Women's T20 World Cup cricket tournament here on Saturday.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first but could only score 115 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. New Zealand scored 118 runs for the loss of 2 wickets in 17.3 overs and registered an easy win.

New Zealand had earlier defeated India and the competition between these two teams has become exciting in the race to make it to the semi-finals from Group A. Australia has six points and its net run rate is 2.78. It is almost certain that it will top the group.

India will play its last match in the league stage against Australia on Sunday while New Zealand will face Pakistan on Monday. Both India and New Zealand have four points each. India's net run rate is 0.576 and New Zealand's is 0.282. Asia Cup champion Sri Lanka again performed poorly and suffered its fourth consecutive defeat.

New Zealand did not show any haste in front of the small target. Opener Pilmar played the role of a mastermind by scoring 53 runs with the help of four fours in 44 balls. After his dismissal, captain Sufi Devine (13 not out) and Kerr (34 not out in 31 balls) easily took the team to the target. Devine won the match for the team by hitting a six.

Earlier, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Atapattu scored 35 runs off 41 balls which included five fours. For New Zealand, spinner Kerr took two wickets for 13 runs in four overs while Leigh Kasperek took two wickets for 27 runs. Off-spinner Eden Carson took one wicket for 17 runs.

Sri Lanka lost the wicket of opener Vishmi Gunaratne (8 runs off 15 balls) in the fourth over. After this, Chamari and Harshitha Samarawickrama (18 runs off 29 balls) did not let any wicket fall for the next 10 overs, but their slow batting increased the pressure on the team. Both of them shared a 48-run partnership in 60 balls for the second wicket.

After both of them were out within two runs, Kavisha Dilhari (10), Neelakshi de Silva (14 not out), and Ama Kanchana (10 not out) helped Sri Lanka reach triple figures. New Zealand gave 15 extra runs which helped Sri Lanka reach a respectable score.