Ireland secured a winning 2-0 lead in the one-day series against Sri Lanka after clinching a dramatic 15-run victory at Stormont.

Leah Paul’s 81, 66 from Amy Hunter and Rebecca Stokell’s unbeaten 53 helped Ireland reach 255-5 in their 50 overs.

The recent Women’s Asia Cup winners looked on course for victory as a 126-run partnership between Harshitha Samarawickrama and Kavisha Dilhari put them on 172-2 after 30.2 overs.

However, Dilhari was then dismissed for 53 by Freya Sargent with Anushka Sanjeewani immediately following for a duck.

Sri Lanka regrouped to reach 210-4 before Harshitha Samarawickrama was run out for 105 by Sarah Forbes in a match-turning moment.

As the tourists appeared to panic, four further wickets fell for the addition of only four runs and while Nilakshi de Silva and Udeshika Prabodhani put on on 26 for the final wicket, Ireland secured series victory as Arlene Kelly dismissed the latter.

Kelly finished with bowling figures of 3-41 after taking the last three Sri Lanka wickets as Ireland secured the series with Tuesday’s final game to spare.