Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka secured four wickets in the last over to seal a thrilling win over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

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

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

The triumph – the Lankan team's maiden of the World Cup after three defeats and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth successive loss since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a poor fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was spilled three times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu could not take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made the opposition regret it.

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

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the final two overs, with merely 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed only three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the triumph at the final moment.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, held hers. The opposition could not.

There will be many questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They possibly have been needing around 270-280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the start, making runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target goal would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a tough chance while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt traveling straight to Jhilik at cover field, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna as she sought to increase the tempo with teammates falling beside her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, even though the second one was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves after an fitness issue to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 chances from a potential 27 at this tournament and boast the poorest catching success rate (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup after all – but substandard fielding standards is a glaring problem which requires attention.