Women’s Asia Cup 2022: Sri Lanka defend 41 against Bangladesh to qualify for semis

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh locked horns in the 18th game in the ongoing Women’s Asia Cup 2022 in Sylhet. The home team won the toss and elected to field first. The Lankan Lions had a poor start as they lost the wicket of skipper Chamari Attapaththu in the second over. Her opening partner, Harshitha Samarawickrama struggled during her 31-ball 18. Her painful looking ended on the last ball of the eighth over.

The team kept losing regular wickets which is why they failed to accelerate the scoring rate. Wicketkeeper batter Anushka Sanjeewani (8) was the other batter who failed to cross the double-digit mark. Hasin Perera and Kavisha Dilhari’s failure with the bat created further problems for the team as they were reduced to 77/5. The likes of Nilakshi de Silva and Oshadi Ranasinghe were looking forward to taking the team to a fighting total.

However, after 18.1 overs, rain interrupted the game so much that the Lankan innings couldn’t be resumed. It ended on 83/5. All the Bangladesh bowlers bowled under the economy rate of six per over.

Sri Lanka won by a close margin in a rain-curtailed game

After the condition became fit to continue the game, the Banglades Tigers were asked to chase down 41 runs in seven overs. This was supposed to be an easy chase. However, Inoka Ranaweera prevented the hosts from chasing down the target with a four-wicket haul. Eight Bangladesh batters failed to cross the double-digit mark. Wicketkeeper Anushka Sanjeewani stumped two players and took a catch which proved vital. In the end, Sri Lanka won the game by three runs. With this win, Sri Lanka qualified for the semifinals of the tournament. They are set to be joined by India and Pakistan.