Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, 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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four wickets in the final innings segment to achieve a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and preserve their faint aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the last six deliveries.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding performance.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu failed to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She registered a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the final two innings segments, with just 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of teammates as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting display. They possibly have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from ball one, scoring at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the powerplay, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their catches in the field, that 203-run objective would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty failing to grab a tough chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling right to Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates getting out near her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 at this tournament and boast the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall moving in the proper way – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but poor fielding is a glaring issue which needs focus.