Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a modest score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's initial of the competition after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding performance.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back in the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the final two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs necessary.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed just three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of teammates as she prepared to bowl the last over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting display. They possibly have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but instead the chase was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh lacked aggression from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves overwhelming to do.

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

It took them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a difficult catch behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

The batter was missed further on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt traveling straight to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with batting partners getting out beside her.

Subsequently in the game, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a missed run-out, while the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the poorest catching success rate (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are competing in just their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding standards is a obvious concern which demands improvement.