Women’s World Cup 2025: Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh to keep their semi-final hopes alive

In the end, it was a game of nerves. The highly experienced Athapathu, who led a handful of her teammates as she prepared to win the final, retained her title. Bangladesh did not do that.

There will be a lot of questions about Bangladesh’s batting performance. They could have easily been chasing 270 or 280 as Sri Lanka looked comfortable at 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the target was much lower.

However, Bangladesh lacked intent from the first ball, scored less than 2.5 runs each over during the power play, and suffered a first-order collapse, ultimately leaving themselves with too much to do.

But whatever problems there were in their batting, had they taken their chances in the field, the target of 203 runs would have been much smaller.

It took them three attempts to break a 72-run second-wicket stand, with wicket-keeper Guti failing to convert a difficult chance behind the stumps to remove Pereira on 23 before Athapathu survived a caught and bowled chance against Rabia. It was hit hard at the archer, but she caught it with both hands.

Pereira was dropped again on 55 and 63, the last chance going straight to Rubia Haider Celik at cover, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to raise the ante with partners falling around her.

Later in the innings, there was also a stumble loss and a last-run loss, although the latter was a bit unfortunate, as Gillick deputized with the gloves after Guti was injured.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such problems on the field are not just a one-time problem. They have dropped 14 points out of a possible 27 in this tournament and boast the lowest catching efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team generally heading in the right direction – they are playing in their second World Cup finals in 50 years – but poor play is a glaring problem that needs attention.