Sri Lanka defeats 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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the decisive innings segment to achieve a thrilling triumph over their opponents and keep their slim hopes of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a thrilling win for Sri Lanka.

The win – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two abandoned games against Australia and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four points with India and New Zealand, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth straight defeat since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the match to dismiss Gunaratne, they were deservedly made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

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

Although the Sri Lankan skipper failed to take advantage, removed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a maiden international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 deliveries and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back in the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 all out.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

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

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

In the end, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of team-mates as she got ready to deliver the final over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of questions about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side lacked aggression from the start, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, experiencing a early batting collapse, and eventually making themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the field, that 203 total goal would have been substantially lower.

It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to take a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to dismiss Perera on her score of 23 before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped once more on 55 runs and her score of 63, the final opportunity flying directly to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to increase the tempo with batting partners getting out near her.

Later in the game, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a failed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik standing in with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 at this World Cup and have the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are overall progressing in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second ODI World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a glaring issue which needs improvement.