Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the decisive over to complete a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them level on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a subpar fielding display.

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

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the last two overs, with just 12 runs needed.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away merely three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who moved aside a several of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, kept her composure. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side showed little purpose from the start, accumulating runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually forcing themselves too much to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been substantially lower.

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a difficult chance behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners getting out near her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the second one was a little unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this competition and display the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are overall moving in the right direction – they are participating in merely their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a obvious problem which requires attention.