Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 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 took four crucial dismissals in the decisive over to seal a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and keep their faint chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a below-par score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the final six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to bring about a exciting victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four tournament points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, endured a fifth consecutive setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They offered second chances to Perera, who was dropped three times, and Athapaththu.

While Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, dismissed leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition regret it.

She registered a maiden international fifty, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over triggering a Lankan downfall from 174-4 to 202 total.

During their chase, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre opening overs and they were later diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the final two overs, with just 12 runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed just three runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the death.

Finally, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, held hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting effort. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka seeming at ease on 159 for four in the 30th over, but rather the chase was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked aggression from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, experiencing a early batting collapse, and finally forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had seized their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been substantially lower.

It required them three attempts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to take a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to send back Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the last attempt flying straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with partners being dismissed around her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was furthermore a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a potential 27 chances at this competition and display the poorest catch efficiency (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are generally moving in the correct path – they are participating in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a obvious problem which requires improvement.