Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to keep their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the final innings segment to achieve a heart-stopping win over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a modest target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine additional runs from the last six bowls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to bring about a dramatic win for Sri Lanka.

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

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth consecutive defeat since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been eliminated.

Although Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately punished for a subpar fielding effort.

They provided lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and Athapaththu.

Although Athapaththu failed to take advantage, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She registered a debut international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and building an important 74-run partnership fifth-wicket collaboration with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, dragged themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th bowling segment initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 for four to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani contained Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were afterwards brought down to 44-3.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their innings, putting on 82 for the fourth wicket before the batter retired hurt for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the last two overs, with merely 12 runs required.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away only three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa all removed as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a game of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of teammates as she prepared to bowl the final over, maintained her nerve. The opposition could not.

There will be plenty of inquiries about the team's batting effort. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th over, but instead the chase was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side showed little intent from the very beginning, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, suffering a initial wicket loss, and finally making themselves excessive to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting lineup, if they had seized their chances in the field, that 203-run goal would have been considerably lower.

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to take a tough catch behind the stumps to remove Perera on 23 runs before the captain got a reprieve from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped again on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt going directly to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being given out lbw by Shorna Akter as she tried to increase the tempo with partners falling beside her.

Subsequently in the batting effort, there was additionally a stumping chance missed and a failed run-out, while the latter was a little regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding woes are far from a one-off. They've missed 14 catches from a possible 27 at this tournament and have the poorest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the competing sides.

They are a team who are typically moving in the correct path – they are competing in merely their second one-day World Cup in the end – but inadequate fielding is a prominent issue which requires focus.