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

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four crucial dismissals in the final over to seal a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their faint chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them tied on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth successive loss since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition regret it.

She scored a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the game, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the remaining two overs, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she prepared to deliver the last over, held hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting performance. They might well have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a tough chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance flying directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates getting out near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this competition and display the poorest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are typically heading in the proper way – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding is a obvious issue which needs focus.