Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to seal a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and maintain their faint aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them level on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

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

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding performance.

They provided second chances to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She achieved a debut international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an important 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their innings, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the target was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side lacked purpose from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, experiencing a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been considerably less.

It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to take a challenging chance behind the stumps to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled again on 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with teammates falling around her.

Later in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, while the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 at this tournament and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally moving in the correct path – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a obvious problem which demands attention.