Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the final innings segment to seal a thrilling win over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive setback since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a subpar fielding effort.

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

Even though Athapaththu failed to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She registered a debut international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team heading into the final two overs, with only 12 additional runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed only three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a few of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the final over, held hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was significantly less.

However, the batting side lacked aggression from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had taken their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run target goal would have been significantly less.

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going right to Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates being dismissed around her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an injury to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are typically moving in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a glaring issue which needs improvement.