Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup tournament hopes ongoing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the final over to achieve a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and maintain their narrow chances of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Chasing a attainable target of 203 on a good batting surface in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine more runs from the final six bowls.

However, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's first of the competition after three losses and two washed-out matches against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four tournament points with the Indian team and the New Zealand side, who confront each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, however, experienced a fifth straight setback since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

Although Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa taking a wicket with the initial ball of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They provided reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, sent back leg before wicket for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera made the opposition suffer.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, accumulating 85 from 99 balls and contributing to an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, pulled themselves back into the game, with Nilakshi's dismissal in the 34th over triggering a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh approaching the last two bowling phases, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the win at the death.

In the end, it was a contest of composure. The seasoned Lankan captain, who ushered away a several of teammates as she prepared to bowl the last over, maintained hers. The opposition could not.

There will be many inquiries about Bangladesh's batting effort. They possibly have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the required total was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side showed little purpose from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and finally leaving themselves excessive to accomplish.

But no matter what difficulties there are with their batting approach, if they had accepted their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run objective would have been substantially less.

It needed them three efforts to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu survived from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was spilled again on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt traveling right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with batting partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a little unfortunate, with Jhilik substituting with the gloves following an fitness issue to Joty.

Sadly for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 chances from a potential 27 at this World Cup and boast the lowest fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are participating in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but inadequate fielding standards is a glaring issue which demands focus.