Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a nail-biting victory over their opponents and maintain their faint aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a modest total of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a subpar fielding effort.

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

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She registered a first international fifty, making 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th innings segment causing a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the last two innings segments, with just 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of teammates as she got ready to bowl the last over, held her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally leaving themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target target would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty not managing to take a difficult chance while keeping to send back Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates falling around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the second one was a little regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent concern which needs improvement.