Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

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 appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding effort.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Lankan collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

During their chase, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 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 advantage Bangladesh heading into the last two overs, with just 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept hers. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but instead the target was much lower.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient aggression from the start, accumulating runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203-run target would have been considerably lower.

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a difficult chance as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63, the final opportunity going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners falling beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are not at all a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 at this World Cup and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall moving in the right direction – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding standards is a obvious concern which requires improvement.