Sri Lanka beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping win over their opponents and keep their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

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

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a subpar fielding performance.

They offered lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu could not capitalise, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the final two overs, with merely 12 runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of teammates as she prepared to bowl the final over, held her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting effort. They might well have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh lacked intent from ball one, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203-run target goal would have been substantially less.

It took them three attempts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to hold a tough catch behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates falling beside her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a available 27 at this competition and boast the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are generally heading in the correct path – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring concern which demands improvement.