Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling win for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four points with India and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight defeat since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

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

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty restored their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the last two overs, with only 12 runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the death.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, undergoing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run target would have been substantially lower.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a difficult catch behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya.

The batter was missed again on 55 and 63, the latter chance flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners getting out around her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a possible 27 at this tournament and boast the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the correct path – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring concern which requires improvement.