Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive innings segment to seal a heart-stopping victory over Bangladesh and maintain their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Pursuing a below-par target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the final six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to secure a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth successive setback since securing victory in their initial game against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Even though the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

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

While Athapaththu could not make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She achieved a first international half-century, making 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Lankan batting collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing powerplay and they were afterwards reduced to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the final two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs needed.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed only three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The very experienced Athapaththu, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she prepared to deliver the decisive over, held her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many questions about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the required total was significantly less.

However, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, accumulating runs at under 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, undergoing a top-order collapse, and finally leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

But whatever difficulties there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203 total objective would have been substantially less.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to hold a tough chance behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on her score of 23 before the captain survived from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was missed again on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to up the ante with batting partners falling around her.

Later in the game, there was also a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the run-out chance was a little unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are not at all a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 chances from a possible 27 at this competition and display the worst catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall heading in the right direction – they are competing in just their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding is a prominent problem which demands improvement.