Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, 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 emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to complete a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and maintain their faint aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the last six balls.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

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

Although the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a subpar fielding display.

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

While Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, sent back lbw for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the remaining two overs, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, held her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting display. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the chase was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh showed little intent from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203 total goal would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to hold a challenging opportunity as wicketkeeper to remove Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled further on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity traveling straight to Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with partners being dismissed beside her.

Later in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this tournament and display the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the proper way – they are competing in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a glaring problem which needs focus.