Sri Lanka seal it with a six

Dilani Manodara went down on one knee, used every ounce of energy she had and struck a meaty blow that resulted in the ball landing somewhere in the stands. She didn't even bother to look up and even before Manodara could make sense of what had just happened, the 30-year-old wicketkeeper-batswoman was swarmed by her Sri Lankan teammates.

The last ball six is quite an astonishing finish to any game of cricket, let alone a World Cup upset featuring the defending champions against a team who had never beaten them. To allow the use of a cliché, it was a classic example of David slaying Goliath.

Chasing 239, Sri Lanka needed one run off the last ball with one wicket in hand to script a famous win over England, the powerhouse of women's cricket. Sri Lanka had already done enough to win the hearts of a handful who turned up at the stadium. After all, they had never managed to cross the 200-run mark in a World Cup match before Friday (previous highest being 177 against England in the 2009 edition). But the manner in which fortunes had swung in the Group A women's World Cup match at Brabourne Stadium, it was difficult to predict whether the Emerald Island would cross the finish line or if the defending champions would hold on for a tie.

England had their tails up going into the final delivery. Just a couple of balls ago, Sri Lanka had lost the wicket of Man-of-the-Match Eshani Kaushalya, turning the tide in England's favour. Georgia Elwiss followed up the wicket-taking delivery with a dot ball, bringing the equation to one off one. Skipper Charlotte Edwards brought the field up. Sensing an opportunity, Manodara decided to go over the top and smacked the ball out of the park. Sri Lanka had pulled off a coup by beating England by one wicket to begin their campaign on an unlikely high. For the record, Sri Lanka's total of 244 is the highest by any team batting second in the World Cup.

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