Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to achieve a thrilling win over their opponents and maintain their faint aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the competition after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive loss since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

While Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the initial ball of the game to remove Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding display.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

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

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

While batting second, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and gave away just three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the death.

Finally, it was a contest of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of teammates as she set herself to bowl the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting display. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked purpose from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a top-order collapse, and finally leaving themselves too much to achieve.

But no matter what issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203 total objective would have been considerably less.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to hold a challenging catch while keeping to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped further on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling straight to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with partners falling around her.

Subsequently in the game, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves due to an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 chances at this competition and display the worst fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are generally moving in the right direction – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding standards is a obvious issue which demands focus.