Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): 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

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the final innings segment to complete a heart-stopping triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to achieve a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's initial of the World Cup after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth successive defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

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

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, pulled themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their innings, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with just 12 more runs necessary.

Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as the Lankan team seized the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a game of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the final over, maintained her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting display. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was much lower.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient intent from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally forcing themselves too much to achieve.

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

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to dismiss Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed further on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and display the lowest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are generally heading in the right direction – they are playing in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding is a prominent problem which demands focus.