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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to complete a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and keep their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them level on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She registered a debut international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

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

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the final two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, kept her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side showed little intent from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run goal would have been significantly less.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to hold a challenging catch behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance going straight to Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with batting partners getting out near her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a available 27 at this tournament and boast the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent issue which needs attention.