Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to seal a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and keep their faint hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the final six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – moves them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive setback since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a poor fielding performance.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back to the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the remaining two overs, with only 12 runs necessary.

Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed only three scoring runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team seized the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a game of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was much lower.

Yet, the batting side showed little aggression from the start, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203 total goal would have been significantly lower.

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed once more on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with teammates falling around her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unfortunate, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties following an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally heading in the right direction – they are competing in only their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring concern which requires focus.