Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes ongoing

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): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a thrilling triumph over their opponents and keep their slim chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage intact.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

They gifted lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition pay.

She scored a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the remaining two innings segments, with only 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, 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 seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of teammates as she prepared to deliver the final over, held hers. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually leaving themselves too much to do.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their catches in the field, that 203-run target goal would have been considerably lower.

It took them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a tough chance as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a return catch possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance going straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to up the ante with partners getting out around her.

Subsequently in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the latter was a little unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a possible 27 at this World Cup and display the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are overall heading in the correct path – they are playing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding performance is a glaring issue which demands improvement.