Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini 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

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the final innings segment to complete a nail-biting victory over their opponents and keep their narrow aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them level on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their initial game against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the final two bowling phases, with just 12 additional runs needed.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the final moment.

In the end, it was a game of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the last over, held her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but instead the required total was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side showed little intent from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a initial wicket loss, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to accomplish.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting, if they had seized their catches in the fielding area, that 203-run target target would have been significantly lower.

It took them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to grab a challenging opportunity while keeping to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped again on 55 runs and her score of 63, the latter chance traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with batting partners being dismissed around her.

Subsequently in the game, there was also a failed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this World Cup and boast the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are generally moving in the correct path – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding standards is a prominent concern which needs improvement.