Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to complete a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and preserve their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side made the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding display.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She achieved a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the match, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the batter left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the last two overs, with just 12 runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded just three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team seized the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of nerve. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a handful of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, maintained her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but rather the target was significantly less.

However, the batting side lacked intent from ball one, scoring at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, suffering a early batting collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves excessive to do.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding area, that 203 total target would have been significantly less.

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a difficult catch while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with teammates being dismissed beside her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves following an physical problem to Joty.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this competition and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are generally heading in the right direction – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a glaring problem which demands focus.