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

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): Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a nail-biting win over their opponents and preserve their narrow chances of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four match points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding display.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition regret it.

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

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the match, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh entering the last two innings segments, with only 12 runs needed.

Yet, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka seized the win at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a few of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, kept her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting display. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the chase was much lower.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little aggression from the start, making runs at less than 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually leaving themselves too much to do.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been substantially less.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a challenging chance behind the stumps to dismiss Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was missed further on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates falling near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a little unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've dropped 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this competition and have the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are overall progressing in the right direction – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a obvious problem which requires attention.