Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to complete a thrilling victory over their opponents and maintain their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a below-par target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the final six balls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the match to remove Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu was unable to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition pay.

She achieved a maiden international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with 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 over triggering a Lankan downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two innings segments, with merely 12 more runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the death.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerves. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a few of fellow players as she got ready to bowl the decisive over, held her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the chase was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves too much to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target objective would have been considerably lower.

It required them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to grab a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying directly to Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out around her.

Later in the innings, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the latter was a little regrettable, with Rubya Haider standing in with the keeping duties following an physical problem to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 at this tournament and have the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically heading in the right direction – they are participating in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but poor fielding is a prominent issue which needs attention.