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

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last over to achieve a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and keep their slim aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the last six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three defeats and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them level on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who face each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, endured a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although Bangladesh made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

They gifted lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was dropped three times, and the Lankan captain.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a maiden international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and building an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back into the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was in favor of the chasing team approaching the remaining two innings segments, with merely 12 additional runs needed.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the final moment.

Finally, it was a match of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a handful of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the final over, kept her nerve. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little purpose from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding department, that 203-run target target would have been substantially less.

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to hold a tough chance while keeping to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with batting partners falling beside her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the poorest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are overall moving in the right direction – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but poor fielding standards is a glaring problem which needs focus.