ISOBEL Joyce played a captain's role in leading Ireland to the ICC Women's World T20 in Bangladesh next March.

She batted through the full 20 overs for 72, ensuring a total that remained just of reach for Holland in the third-place play-off in Sandymount last night - but it was ever so close.

"We got out of jail", admitted coach Jeremy Bray.

"To be honest we didn't deserve to win it - Holland have improved a lot and they played better than us today."

The final margin of two runs was enough to ensure the women and men will feature together for the first time on the international stage.

Player-of-the-match Joyce shared a stand of 80 for the second wicket with Kim Garth (31) and a target of 137 looked beyond the Dutch.

But Hermien Rambaldo also batted through - for 58 - and with her partners kept Holland ahead of the DL rate.

With 29 needed off three Laura Delany bowled a tight over, but 12 off the 19th meant she had to keep the Dutch below 12 off the last over.

Her first ball was a wide but the Dutch just couldn't hit boundaries, and with four needed off the last ball Kim Garth retrieved quickly and Ireland were through by two.

The coach was unhappy with the performance.

"130-140 is just not a good enough score, we need to aim for 150-160 against these teams. And we bowled poorly too.

"It's great to qualify for the 2020 World Cup, but we've a lot of work to do, and a few changes to make, " he added.

At YMCA: IRELAND 136-5 (20 overs; I Joyce 72no, K Garth 31, D Braat 2-24) beat NETHERLANDS 134-4 (20; H Rambaldo 58, H Siegers 29, T van der Gun 20) by two runs