Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the decisive innings segment to achieve a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a dramatic success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a fifth consecutive loss since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a first international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with only 12 runs needed.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of teammates as she got ready to deliver the last over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting performance. They might well have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been significantly lower.

It took them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a tough chance as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt going straight to Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates falling near her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the worst catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent issue which needs attention.