Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the final innings segment to achieve a thrilling win over Bangladesh and maintain their faint aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Chasing a modest total of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team required nine runs from the last six deliveries.

However, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, experienced a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a disappointing fielding effort.

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

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made the opposition suffer.

She scored a maiden international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back in the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were subsequently diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two bowling phases, with only 12 additional runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as Sri Lanka snatched the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who ushered away a handful of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, held her composure. The opposition did not.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been chasing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159-4 in the 30th over, but in contrast the chase was much lower.

Yet, the batting side lacked aggression from the very beginning, scoring at less than 2.5 runs each over during the powerplay, experiencing a top-order collapse, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the field, that 203 total target would have been significantly smaller.

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to grab a difficult opportunity while keeping to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled once more on 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying right to Jhilik at cover, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with partners being dismissed near her.

Afterwards in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the latter was a little unlucky, with Jhilik deputising with the gloves after an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 chances at this World Cup and have the worst catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically heading in the proper way – they are participating in merely their second ODI World Cup after all – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring issue which demands improvement.