Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's 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): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the final six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a subpar fielding effort.

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

While Athapaththu could not capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a several of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the final over, held hers. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting display. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was much lower.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from the start, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been significantly less.

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was dropped again on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this tournament and boast the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall heading in the right direction – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent issue which requires focus.