Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to complete a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She registered a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

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

It was advantage the chasing team entering the last two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed merely three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.

Finally, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, kept hers. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting effort. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the field, that 203 total goal would have been considerably lower.

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a difficult chance as wicketkeeper to remove Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with partners being dismissed beside her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider deputising with the gloves due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this tournament and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are overall moving in the correct path – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding is a obvious issue which requires improvement.