Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their tournament hopes alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the last innings segment to complete a thrilling win over their opponents and maintain their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a attainable total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh needed nine more runs from the remaining six balls.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu took three wickets in four balls and de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida Akter to bring about a exciting success for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them equal on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, suffered a fifth straight loss since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been knocked out.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the perfect start, with Marufa striking with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a disappointing fielding performance.

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

Although the Sri Lankan skipper was unable to make it count, removed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being put down by Rabeya Khan, Perera forced the opposition suffer.

She registered a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an important 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's impressive bowling figures, fought themselves back to the game, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

In reply, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23-1 in a uninspiring powerplay and they were afterwards diminished to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty reconstructed their batting effort, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket before Sharmin left the field injured for a resolute 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was leaning toward the chasing team approaching the last two bowling phases, with only 12 additional runs necessary.

However, Dasanayaka sent back Ritu and conceded just three runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the victory at the death.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to bowl the final over, held her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting display. They might well have been needing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th innings segment, but rather the target was much lower.

Nevertheless, the batting side displayed insufficient purpose from the start, scoring at below 2.5 runs per over during the initial phase, undergoing a top-order collapse, and eventually leaving themselves too much to accomplish.

But whatever issues there are with their batting, if they had seized their catches in the fielding department, that 203-run target would have been significantly smaller.

It required them three attempts to terminate the 72-run stand second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty failing to grab a tough catch while keeping to dismiss Perera on 23 runs before Athapaththu got a reprieve from a caught and bowled chance against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled further on 55 and 63, the last attempt traveling straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to up the ante with teammates getting out beside her.

Afterwards in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a failed run-out, even though the latter was a somewhat regrettable, with Jhilik deputising with the wicketkeeping gloves after an injury to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding woes are nowhere near a one-off. They've missed 14 chances from a available 27 chances at this tournament and display the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1%) of the participating teams.

They are a side who are overall heading in the right direction – they are playing in merely their second 50-over World Cup after all – but inadequate fielding standards is a obvious concern which requires improvement.