Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a thrilling victory over their opponents and keep their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

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

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – moves them level on four points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

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

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a debut international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back to the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their innings, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the last two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, held her composure. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves too much to achieve.

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

It needed them three attempts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty failing to grab a difficult chance while keeping to remove Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the last attempt going right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed around her.

Later in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, although the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've missed 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this tournament and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically moving in the right direction – they are participating in only their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent issue which requires attention.