Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the final over to achieve a thrilling win over Bangladesh and preserve their faint hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the last six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth straight setback since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a poor fielding display.

They gifted reprieves to Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu could not capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She registered a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the final two bowling phases, with just 12 additional runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of teammates as she prepared to deliver the final over, kept her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially smaller.

It required them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to hold a challenging catch while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled further on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling straight to Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with partners falling near her.

Later in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a potential 27 at this tournament and have the lowest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall heading in the right direction – they are playing in only their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a obvious problem which demands focus.