Like their male counterparts, South Africa and Sri Lanka's women have the unenviable task of playing in a World T20 dead rubber when they meet at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Monday. Both teams have missed the semi-finals boat from Group A, having managed to beat only Ireland.

"It's our final game in the World Cup and we want to end on a high," said Mignon du Preez, the South African captain. "We'll go out there and give it our all. We know we can't go through to the semi-finals but there's still a lot to play for. We'd like to see this tournament more as a stepping stone than a stumbling block."

Du Preez admitted South Africa's batting was her biggest area of concern. “It's not so much the skill as the execution that's the issue,” she said.

Sri Lanka's captain, Chamari Atapattu, who has had to fill in for Shashikala Siriwardene after one game, has not had it easy. "Our batters have done well. But we've lost wickets in clusters after 10-12 overs. That and a lot of fielding and bowling errors have cost us," she said.

Sri Lanka has batted first in all three of its games, posting totals of 110 (NZ), 129 (Ire) and 123 (Australia). "It's a big deal to make a score like that against Australia," Atapattu said. "We want to bat even better tomorrow. We want to finish this tournament well."

(Sports Star Live)