Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and keep their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine runs from the last six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, suffered a fifth straight setback since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a poor fielding display.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty rebuilt their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with just 12 more runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a few of fellow players as she prepared to bowl the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting display. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh lacked intent from the start, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves too much to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty being unable to hold a tough chance while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt going directly to Jhilik at cover, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a somewhat unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 at this tournament and boast the lowest catching success rate (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are overall progressing in the proper way – they are competing in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring issue which demands attention.