Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four crucial dismissals in the decisive innings segment to complete a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and preserve their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a below-par total of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the last six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to bring about a thrilling victory for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the World Cup after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter striking with the opening bowl of the game to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

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

While Athapaththu could not capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She scored a debut international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back into the game, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment triggering a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 with one wicket down in a uninspiring initial phase and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a determined 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the remaining two overs, with merely 12 more runs required.

Yet, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team grabbed the win at the very end.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of teammates as she got ready to deliver the final over, kept hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous questions about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking settled on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but instead the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little purpose from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, suffering a top-order collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their catches in the field, that 203-run goal would have been significantly smaller.

It required them three tries to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to hold a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was missed further on her score of 55 and 63, the latter chance flying straight to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with teammates falling near her.

Later in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a slightly regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for the team, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a possible 27 at this World Cup and have the worst fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically progressing in the right direction – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding performance is a prominent concern which requires improvement.