Sri Lanka were 44 for 5 chasing 115, and Samarawickrama got them home with four balls left

Bangladesh had Sri Lanka five down inside ten overs in Dubai and still lost. The defending champions top Group B, which leaves India waiting on Tuesday to learn their semi-final opponent.

Bangladesh made 114 for 8 in Dubai and had Sri Lanka five down for 44 inside ten overs chasing it. They still lost. Harshitha Samarawickrama batted through the wreckage for 48 not out off 37 balls, took 16 off one Ritu Moni over when the game was drifting away, and the defending champions won by four wickets with four balls left to top Group B of the Women’s Asia Cup.

A 17-year-old took the game away from Bangladesh first

Chamudi Praboda has played six internationals. Sri Lanka’s Under-19 captain made her debut in the three-match T20I series against Pakistan that finished on 4 August, and on Sunday she doubled her career wicket tally in a single spell, finishing with 3 for 21.

Her first over was the seventh of the innings, and Dilara Akter had just hit her for four. Two balls later Dilara was gone for a run-a-ball 26, an innings that had started with three consecutive boundaries off Chethana Vimukthi in the third over. Bangladesh never recovered the tempo. Sobhana Mostary and Shorna Akter put on 41 and dragged the innings towards the death overs, and then Praboda removed both inside three balls in her last over, flighting one past Mostary to have her stumped and drawing the other into a return catch.

Sri Lanka’s fielding was less convincing. Nilakshi Silva and Vimukthi both put down catches off Chamari Athapaththu’s bowling, and Athapaththu had a clear caught-behind turned down off the final ball of her spell.

Marufa Akter nearly won it on her own

Chasing 115 at less than a run a ball should have been routine. Marufa Akter made sure it was not. She had Athapaththu caught at first slip by Fahima Khatun off the last ball of the first over, the Sri Lanka captain having faced two deliveries and gone charging at a ball she would normally deposit in the stands. Then she bowled Imesha Dulani with one that went through the gate.

Sultana Khatun bowled Sanjana Kavindi off the last ball of the powerplay. Sri Lanka were 44 for 5 in the tenth. When Nigar Sultana brought Marufa back in the 17th, she bowled Nilakshika Silva, conceded four runs, and finished with 3 for 21, the best T20I figures of her career. It was another three-wicket haul in her 48-match T20I career.

Sixteen off an over, and then two off the last

Ritu Moni had bowled three overs for very little. Samarawickrama took 16 off her fourth. An inside edge off the second ball ran away to fine leg for four. The next one she swept into the advertising cushion at midwicket for six. She then came down the pitch to Nahida Akter and hit a six back down the ground, and suddenly Sri Lanka needed two off the last over.

They got them off the second ball, the ball brushing a pad and trickling past the keeper. It is Sri Lanka’s seventh win in a row over Bangladesh.

What it means for India

Sri Lanka finish top of Group B on three wins from three and play whoever comes second in Group A, in the second semi-final on Friday 11 September. India have won all three of their Group A matches and cannot be caught, so they take the first semi-final on Thursday 10 September, 8pm IST in Dubai, against the Group B runner-up.

That second Group B place is still open. Bangladesh and the UAE are both on two points and meet in Dubai on Tuesday evening, and the winner takes it. Bangladesh have the better net run rate of the two, but after a batting effort that never got going against Sri Lanka’s spinners, Nigar Sultana’s side will not want the question left to a calculation.

Group A is settled tonight in Dubai, where Pakistan face Hong Kong in the last group game. The final is on 13 September.

Stay across every Women’s Asia Cup result