Bangladesh suffered a three-run loss against Sri Lanka in their fifth match of the ingoing edition of Women's Asia Cup at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Monday.

Pursuing a sorry 41 in seven overs in a rain-hit tie, the home side sustained an awful pressure that led them to be concluded with 37-7.

With the defeat, the defending Asian champions made it critical to cruise into the regional semi-finals, as the hosts now hope to lose to India today while also winning against the UAE tomorrow to secure a place in the last four competition.

Despite losing the opening pair within three overs for 12, Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana and Rumana Ahmed formed a 15-run partnership to overcome the early damage that was also handing them some hope of chasing down the target needing just 15 from 12 deliveries with eight wickets in hand.

However, their hopes were dashed as Nigar and her troops continued to lose wickets at regular intervals after opting to go big guns.

The sixth over saw four wickets down that set a challenging 12 target in the last over that was not successfully breezed past by the hosts.

Inoka Ranaweera, who was named player-of-the-match, claimed four wickets in two overs, conceding only seven runs.

Earlier, Sri Lanka were sent in to bat first and slang 83-5 in 18.1 following a 30-minute hiatus on the back of the rain, which meant the DLS method needed to be introduced to give the home side a reduced target.

Nilakshi de Silva led Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 31-ball 28.

For Bangladesh, Rumana Ahmed was the pick of the bowlers for Bangladesh, with 2-14 runs in her three-over spell.