Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the decisive over to complete a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and preserve their narrow chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine runs from the final six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a disappointing fielding performance.

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

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition regret it.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and allowed only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the win at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous questions about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the chase was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and finally making themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the field, that 203-run target objective would have been considerably less.

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a challenging chance while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was missed again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding issues are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a potential 27 at this tournament and have the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are overall moving in the right direction – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a obvious problem which requires improvement.