Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the final over to seal a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and preserve their faint hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight loss since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, dragged themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh lacked intent from ball one, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the field, that 203 total target would have been considerably lower.

It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a tough catch while keeping to remove Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was missed further on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with partners falling around her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and display the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are typically heading in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a glaring issue which demands improvement.