Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to preserve their campaign alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the last over to seal a heart-stopping triumph over their opponents and keep their faint hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a thrilling success for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three losses and two no-results against Australia and the Kiwi side – pushes them equal on four match points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive loss since securing victory in their first match against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya, Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She registered a debut international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team heading into the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and conceded merely three runs before the captain's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a several of teammates as she set herself to bowl the final over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous doubts about the team's batting effort. They might well have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the target was significantly less.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their catches in the field, that 203 total objective would have been substantially smaller.

It needed them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to send back Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed around her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, although the second one was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties due to an injury to Joty.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a single occurrence. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 at this World Cup and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are generally progressing in the right direction – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a prominent issue which needs improvement.