Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi 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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the decisive over to achieve a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and maintain their slim hopes of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine more runs from the final six balls.

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

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth straight loss since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Although the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu was unable to make it count, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She registered a debut international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the game, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre initial phase and they were subsequently diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the last two bowling phases, with just 12 additional runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to deliver the last over, held her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

Yet, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from the start, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to achieve.

But whatever issues there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their chances in the field, that 203-run target would have been significantly less.

It needed them three efforts to break the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to hold a tough opportunity behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped again on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with teammates getting out beside her.

Later in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 at this World Cup and boast the lowest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding performance is a obvious issue which requires attention.