Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to keep their World Cup campaign ongoing

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); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the final innings segment to seal a thrilling triumph over Bangladesh and preserve their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

Pursuing a below-par score of 203 on a favorable wicket in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the remaining six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu secured three wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a dramatic win for the Lankan team.

The victory – the Lankan team's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – moves them level on four points with India and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, endured a fifth successive setback since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although Bangladesh got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter striking with the first delivery of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding performance.

They offered second chances to Hasini Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu was unable to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh suffer.

She achieved a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, dragged themselves back to the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing opening overs and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Joty restored their score, adding 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 runs required.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and allowed merely three runs before Athapaththu's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka grabbed the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who directed away a handful of teammates as she set herself to deliver the last over, held her composure. The opposition could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about the team's batting performance. They possibly have been chasing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka looking at ease on 159 for four in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh displayed insufficient purpose from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, suffering a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to do.

But whatever issues there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their catches in the field, that 203-run target would have been considerably smaller.

It took them three efforts to terminate the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a challenging chance while keeping to remove Perera on her score of 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled once more on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the final opportunity traveling directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she sought to up the ante with partners falling near her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a missed stumping and a missed run-out, even though the run-out chance was a slightly unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties due to an fitness issue to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are far from a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a potential 27 at this competition and have the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally moving in the right direction – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but poor fielding is a glaring concern which demands attention.