Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign breathing

ICC Women's World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the last over to seal a nail-biting triumph over their opponents and maintain their slim aspirations of making it for the World Cup semi-finals ongoing.

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

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three wickets in four bowls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a thrilling success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – elevates them equal on four tournament points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who face each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight setback since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh made the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to remove Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a subpar fielding display.

They provided second chances to Hasini Perera, who was missed three times, and the Lankan captain.

While Athapaththu failed to make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera made the opposition pay.

She scored a maiden international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and building an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket with De Silva.

Bangladesh, guided by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the match, with De Silva's wicket 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 starting bowlers Malki Madara and Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23-1 in a lacklustre powerplay and they were later brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin retired hurt for a determined 64 in the 36th over.

It was leaning toward the chasing team entering the remaining two overs, with just 12 more runs required.

However, Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu and gave away just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as Sri Lanka grabbed the triumph at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a contest of nerve. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a several of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the last over, kept hers. Bangladesh did not.

There will be plenty of doubts about Bangladesh's batting display. They might well have been pursuing 270 to 280 with Sri Lanka seeming settled on 159 for four in the 30th innings segment, but in contrast the required total was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh showed little intent from ball one, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and eventually making themselves overwhelming to do.

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

It needed them three tries to end the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with keeper Joty not managing to take a difficult chance while keeping to send back Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance possibility against Rabeya Khan.

The batter was spilled once more on her score of 55 and her score of 63, the final opportunity going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being dismissed lbw by Shorna as she sought to accelerate the scoring with partners getting out around her.

Subsequently in the game, there was also a missed stumping and a missed run-out, while the latter was a slightly unlucky, with Rubya Haider deputising with the keeping duties following an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding problems are far from a single occurrence. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 at this World Cup and boast the lowest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a team who are overall moving in the correct path – they are competing in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but poor fielding standards is a prominent problem which demands attention.