Samarawickrama Leads Sri Lanka to Asia Cup Semi-Finals

Sri Lanka flirted with disaster in Dubai, then walked straight through it.

Chasing a modest 115 against Bangladesh in their Women’s Asia Cup 2026 clash on Sunday, they collapsed, recovered, wobbled again and finally staggered over the line with three balls to spare. It was messy, tense and utterly gripping.

At the centre of it all stood Harshitha Samarawickrama, unflustered while everything around her frayed.

She finished unbeaten on 48 from 37 balls, the innings that secured a three-wicket win, sealed Sri Lanka’s place in the semi-finals and kept their unbeaten run alive at three matches. The winning run came in suitably nervy fashion: a leg-bye in the final over, amid half-hearted lbw appeals and anxious Bangladeshi glances at the umpire.

It was that kind of night.

Bangladesh bite back

On paper, 114/8 never looked enough. On this pitch, under this pressure, it almost was.

Bangladesh’s batters never really escaped. Sobhana Mostary’s 34 at No.3 offered resistance after Dilara Akter’s positive start, but once Chamudi Prabodha ripped through the top order, the innings lost its shape. Sri Lanka’s spinners tightened the screws, and the middle order simply stalled. Singles came, boundaries didn’t. The total crawled rather than surged to 114/8.

That should have been a routine chase. Instead, Bangladesh’s bowlers turned it into a scrap.

Marufa Akter led the charge with a superb spell of 3-21, hitting the pitch hard, finding just enough movement and refusing to give anything away. Sri Lanka’s top order buckled. At 44/5, the favourites were in serious trouble, the dugout suddenly quiet, Bangladesh’s fielders buzzing around every mis-hit.

The pressure mounted. Dot balls grew heavier. Every appeal felt louder.

Samarawickrama takes control

Samarawickrama, though, played a different game.

She absorbed the early chaos, picking off singles, refusing to chase strokes that weren’t there. At the end of 17 overs, Sri Lanka were 86/6, still needing 29. The equation looked simple; the mood did not. Bangladesh had the energy, the momentum, and the scoreboard pressure. Samarawickrama was 28 off 30, having just seen off the final over of Marufa’s spell.

The next over changed everything.

Two balls in, Samarawickrama drove a four. The very next delivery, she launched the first six of the match. In one over, the tone flipped. Bangladesh’s shoulders dropped a fraction; Sri Lanka’s dugout leaned forward.

Suddenly, the chase felt gettable again. The target came down to 13 off 12 balls, but Bangladesh’s problems deepened. A slow over-rate penalty cut their protection in the deep: for the last two overs, only three fielders were allowed outside the 25-yard circle. Against a set batter, it was a brutal handicap.

Samarawickrama cashed in. At the end of the 19th over, she muscled another six, straight and clean, a shot that almost settled the contest on the spot. Bangladesh, who had dragged the game into the final stretch with sheer will, now watched the match slip out of their grasp in two swings.

The last over still carried tension – this was a chase that refused to run smooth – but Sri Lanka’s anchor stayed put, nudging, judging, waiting. The final leg-bye was scruffy, but it counted all the same.

Sri Lanka through, Bangladesh left to rue

For Sri Lanka, this was a reminder that tournaments are rarely won on easy days. Their bowlers, led by Prabodha’s key strikes, did the hard work early. Their batters nearly undid it. Samarawickrama rescued it.

Bangladesh walk away with little on the scoreboard but plenty in terms of effort. They turned 114/8 into a genuine contest, their attack punching well above the weight of the total, their fielders alive to every half-chance. For long stretches, they had a semi-finalist on the ropes.

But in knockout tournaments and their dress rehearsals, it often comes down to one player refusing to blink.

In Dubai, that player wore Sri Lankan colours.