Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the decisive innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and keep their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the remaining six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the encounter to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding display.

They provided reprieves to Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.

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

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back into the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th bowling segment triggering a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket stand before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the final two overs, with just 12 runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away merely three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, kept her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked intent from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves too much to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run target target would have been significantly lower.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a tough chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled further on 55 runs and 63, the latter chance traveling right to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to up the ante with partners getting out beside her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 at this World Cup and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall moving in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding is a prominent concern which needs focus.