It would be fair to say that when the small band of cricket enthusiasts arrived at Lincoln Green today, they expected little in the way of high drama from CricInfo Women's World Cup bantamweights Ireland and Sri Lanka.

What they got instead was a scrap worthy of seasoned heavyweights. It was a slug fest. The skills may have been lacking but the fight burned in both. For all that, Ireland contrived to lose the contest by 10 runs when cool heads should have enabled the win.

Nine run outs occurred in the game. Five needless mistakes were made by Sri Lanka while the Irish suffered four run outs mainly induced by a high state of panic, for what is believed to have been a world record nine run outs in a one-day match.

It was an amazing game of lost opportunities for both teams.

But from somewhere, the little-ranked Sri Lankans found something extra to apply superb pressure to the Irish over the last 10 overs.

Sri Lanka scored 129 runs in 47.3 overs. Ireland went into the last 10 overs at 88/3, needing only 42 more runs to win.

Sri Lankan captain Rasanjali Silva couldn't understand why all her team's run outs occurred.

"It is the first time it has happened. I don't know why, they were all good batsmen. Maybe they were a bit nervous.

"We targeted 150-175 and were disappointed with our score."

Fortunately, Hiroshi Abeysinghe was in combative mind and she produced a CricInfo Player of the Match performance by scoring 52 off 112 balls. She batted through to the 47th over and gave her side a fighting chance.

"It was the best I've ever batted. There were some bad run outs but in the last few overs in the field we played very well" Hiroshi said.

"I think we have to thank Guy de Alwis our coach. He has helped us very much. He has us practice very hard and likes us to be disciplined. He's the man who has taken us to this level," she said.

Ireland did a superb job in containing Sri Lanka while bowling. None of the batsmen handled Catherine O'Neill's bowling well. She bowled 10 overs and conceded only 13 runs while Isobel Joyce picked up 2-15 from her eight overs.

Ireland made a cautious start and a first significant blow was the loss of Caitriona Beggs when trapped leg before wicket by Chamani Seneviratne for 14.

Karen Young held up one end but in the process became bogged down and her took 112 balls.

That was the forerunner to the Sri Lankan recovery.

"With good fielding and bowling we came back," Silva said.

Ireland still needed one run a ball with three overs remaining but in the chaos that overtook the side, it lost five wickets in 15 balls and was all out for 119, 10 runs short of the target.

Seneviratne was back in the action again and when she bowled the penultimate over she picked up two leg before wicket decisions that left Ireland with no show.

With the loss, Ireland was left with little hope of qualifying automatically for the next World Cup, and Sri Lankan manager Mrs M C Munaweera was able to say that the result offered great hope for the future of women's cricket in Sri Lanka and there would now be more incentive for girls to take the game up.

There was also cause for confidence of beating the Netherlands in the game scheduled for Sunday, as in a series in 1999, Sri Lanka beat the Netherlands 5-0.

© CricInfo