Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu insisted her side must improve if they are to qualify for the semifinals of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025, despite a narrow victory over Bangladesh on Monday (20).

A brilliant final over with the ball from Athapaththu saw Bangladesh lose four wickets in four balls to hand Sri Lanka a seven-run victory in Navi Mumbai, keeping their hopes of progression alive.

However, Athapaththu warned there must be lessons learned, especially with the bat, if Sri Lanka were to upset the odds and reach the last four.

They looked well set to post a total well above 200 after Hasini Perera’s excellent 85 but collapsed late on to set Bangladesh 203 to win.

It was ultimately just enough for Sri Lanka’s first victory of the tournament, but Athapaththu is demanding improvements ahead of their next match against Pakistan on Friday (24).

“We dropped a few catches and we made many mistakes as a batting unit, it was not our best game but we were fortunate enough to win,” she said.

“Hasini and myself built a good partnership. We lost a couple of wickets back-to-back. We have to learn from Bangladesh how they batted in the middle overs, as a batting unit we made so many mistakes. We have to improve those areas before the next game.

“If we want to improve women’s cricket in Sri Lanka, we have to play our positive cricket and smart cricket all the time in the middle – that’s the most important thing.

“We have to execute the right plan at the right time. We have one more game left, we will try our best to win and if we make the semifinals, it’s a miracle!”

 (ICC)