Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to keep their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final innings segment to seal a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the last six bowls.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three wickets in four deliveries and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to achieve a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four match points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning 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 remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She registered a first international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the match, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a disappointing initial phase and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their batting effort, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the last two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a game of composure. The very experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a several of team-mates as she got ready to bowl the last over, kept hers. The opposition could not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

However, the batting side lacked aggression from the very beginning, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, suffering a initial wicket loss, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding area, that 203 total target would have been substantially lower.

It required them three efforts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Joty being unable to hold a tough chance behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped again on 55 and her score of 63, the latter chance going directly to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out around her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties after an fitness issue to Joty.

Sadly for the team, such fielding problems are not at all a one-off. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 chances at this tournament and display the poorest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are overall moving in the correct path – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent problem which demands attention.