Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and keep their faint aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four match points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive loss since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted second chances to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a debut international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the final two overs, with just 12 runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the very end.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the final over, kept hers. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the start, making runs at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves excessive to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been considerably smaller.

It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with batting partners falling around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and have the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding is a prominent concern which needs attention.