Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): 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 complete a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh and maintain their faint chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine additional runs from the last six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

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

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth successive defeat since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the match to send back Gunaratne, they were deservedly penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

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

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to take advantage, removed lbw for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition suffer.

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

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th bowling segment causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

In reply, the Lankan team's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh entering the final two innings segments, with just 12 additional runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed only three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team seized the triumph at the final moment.

Finally, it was a contest of nerves. The very experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of team-mates as she prepared to bowl the final over, maintained her composure. Bangladesh failed to.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They possibly have been needing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team appearing at ease on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side showed little intent from the very beginning, scoring at under 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to do.

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

It needed them three attempts to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty not managing to take a tough 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.

The batter was missed once more on 55 runs and 63 runs, the final opportunity flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to up the ante with teammates falling beside her.

Later in the game, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the run-out chance was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves following an injury to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the worst catch efficiency (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a squad who are generally moving in the right direction – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a obvious problem which needs focus.