Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to complete a nail-biting victory over their opponents and preserve their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Needing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them level on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive setback since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to make it count, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition pay.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team heading into the last two overs, with only 12 more runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of questions about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total goal would have been substantially lower.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a little unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 at this competition and display the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are generally moving in the correct path – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a obvious issue which requires focus.