Sri Lanka 114 for 3 (Gunaratne 51, Samarawickrama 33, Nahida 3-12) beat Bangladesh 111 for 8 (Sultana 48*, Shorna 25, Priyadharshani 2-17, Prabodhani 2-20) by seven wickets

Sri Lanka, in the chase, lost their captain Chamari Athapaththu early, but as they have shown time and again this year, they are no longer a one-woman team. Gunaratne - who has had a stellar 2024, continued her excellent run of form - smashing her T20I third half-century. She got good support from Harshitha Samarawickrama as Sri Lanka got over the line with 17 balls to spare. That meant Bangladesh's winless run in T20Is in 2024 extended to nine.

Bangladesh's powerplay to forget

Sultana firm, but Sri Lanka keep chipping away

A lot of the responsibility to take Bangladesh forward was on Sultana's shoulders. She started slow, her first 18 balls only yielded six runs as Sri Lanka dried up the runs. Bangladesh could only reach 46 for 4 after ten overs and the pressure brought about Shorifa Khatun's downfall. Athapaththu, sensing her willingness to break the shackles, kept a length ball slow on off stump. Shorifa took the bait eyeing an across-the-line hack only to see her off stump disturbed.

Rabeya Khan got off the mark with a four but was soon sent back caught plumb in front of the stumps by Sugandika Kumari for 10. At 67 for 6 after 15, Bangladesh's chances of reaching 100 looked bleak.

Shorna shores up Bangladesh

Bangladesh finally got the momentum they so dearly required, and it came through 17-year-old Shorna's blade. She immediately injected the missing impetus by first thrashing Priyadharshani through midwicket before slog sweeping Athapaththu for four more. Shorna then struck Kavisha Dilhari for three back-to-back fours taking Bangladesh close to 100. Her attempt at a fourth boundary, however, failed with de Silva taking another good catch at long-on.

Sultana kept things going at the other end. Bangladesh reached 100 in 19 overs before Sultana struck two fours in the 20th off Prabodhani. Bangladesh added 44 runs in the last five overs, but 111 against a Sri Lanka unit in form was never going to be enough.

Gunaratne, however, kept Sri Lanka on track. She got going with a four over mid-off and then whacked Marufa wide of long-on. Gunaratne collected five fours in the three overs after the powerplay as Sri Lanka sped towards the target. The highlight of her innings was her running between the wickets. When the boundaries didn't come, she tipped and ran and got good support from Samarawickrama.

The duo added 54 off 48 balls for the second wicket and made sure that they did not let Bangladesh into the game at any stage. Gunaratne notched up her third T20I fifty this year with a reverse sweep - a shot that she played seven times according to ESPNcricinfo's logs.

By the time she fell for 51 off 48, cleaned up by Nahida, Sri Lanka were just 26 shy of the target with 37 balls remaining. Samarawickrama then took up the mantle of taking the chase forward. She joined Kavisha Dilhari to strike three fours off a Shorna over to bring the target down to single digits before Dilhari finished off the chase with a four over mid-off.

For Bangladesh, only Nahida troubled Sri Lanka picking 3 for 12 in her four overs.