Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

The Lankan team 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 margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the final innings segment to complete a nail-biting win over Bangladesh and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Needing a modest score of 203 on a good batting surface in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the final six bowls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three crucial wickets in four deliveries and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to secure a exciting success for the Lankan team.

The win – Sri Lanka's first of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them tied on four points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive setback since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were deservedly punished for a disappointing fielding display.

They provided lifelines to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu could not make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya, Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a debut international fifty, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's wicket in the 34th over triggering a Lankan batting collapse from 174-4 to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring initial phase and they were afterwards diminished to 44-3.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, contributing 82 for the fourth wicket before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a determined 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage Bangladesh heading into the final two bowling phases, with just 12 more runs required.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded merely three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the very end.

In the end, it was a match of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of team-mates as she set herself to bowl the last over, maintained her composure. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous doubts about Bangladesh's batting performance. They might well have been pursuing around 270-280 with the Lankan team seeming comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a top-order collapse, and ultimately making themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had accepted their opportunities in the fielding area, that 203-run objective would have been substantially smaller.

It took them three tries to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a tough catch while keeping to send back Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled chance opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was missed again on 55 runs and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling right to Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed near her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a missed stumping and a missed run-out, although the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've missed 14 chances from a possible 27 opportunities at this competition and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a side who are generally moving in the right direction – they are participating in only their second one-day World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding is a obvious issue which requires focus.