Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

Sri Lanka 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

Bangladesh 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team claimed four wickets in the final innings segment to achieve a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and maintain their faint chances of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage ongoing.

Chasing a attainable target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six bowls.

Yet, Lankan skipper Athapaththu secured three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three unsuccessful matches and two abandoned games against the Australian team and New Zealand – pushes them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa striking with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding display.

They offered lifelines to Perera, who was missed on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though Athapaththu was unable to take advantage, dismissed lbw for 46 just one delivery after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made Bangladesh regret it.

She scored a first international fifty, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an important 74-run fifth-wicket with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, guided by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, pulled themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 all out.

In reply, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were later diminished to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their score, contributing 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward Bangladesh heading into the last two bowling phases, with only 12 additional runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and allowed just three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team grabbed the victory at the very end.

Finally, it was a contest of nerve. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who directed away a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the final over, held her nerve. Bangladesh could not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting display. They could easily have been chasing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159-4 in the 30th bowling phase, but instead the target was much lower.

Yet, the batting side lacked intent from ball one, accumulating runs at below 2.5 runs each over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves excessive to do.

But whatever problems there are with their batting approach, if they had taken their opportunities in the field, that 203-run goal would have been considerably smaller.

It took them three efforts to break the 72-run stand second-wicket collaboration, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana failing to grab a challenging chance behind the stumps to remove Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch opportunity against Rabeya.

The batter was missed again on her score of 55 and 63, the final opportunity traveling directly to Jhilik at cover field, before eventually being given out leg before wicket by Shorna as she attempted to increase the tempo with batting partners being dismissed beside her.

Afterwards in the batting effort, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the run-out chance was a slightly unlucky, with Jhilik substituting with the wicketkeeping gloves after an injury to Joty.

Unfortunately for the team, such fielding problems are far from a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 at this competition and boast the poorest catching success rate (48.1 percent) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically progressing in the correct path – they are playing in just their second ODI World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a glaring concern which requires improvement.