Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to preserve their World Cup campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side win by seven runs margin

The Lankan cricket team secured four crucial dismissals in the last innings segment to complete a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and maintain their narrow chances of making it for the tournament knockout stage alive.

Chasing a below-par target of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, the Bangladeshi team needed nine runs from the last six balls.

Yet, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four bowls and Nilakshi de Silva dismissed via run-out Nahida to secure a exciting victory for Sri Lanka.

The triumph – Sri Lanka's maiden of the competition after three losses and two abandoned games against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, experienced a fifth straight loss since winning their tournament opener against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Although Bangladesh made the perfect start, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately made to pay for a subpar fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Perera, who was dropped on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

While the Sri Lankan skipper failed to make it count, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh suffer.

She scored a first international half-century, scoring 85 from 99 deliveries and sharing an crucial 74-run fifth-wicket collaboration with De Silva.

Bangladesh, spearheaded by Shorna Akter's 3-27, fought themselves back in the match, with Nilakshi's removal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan downfall from 174 with four wickets down to 202 complete.

While batting second, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Malki Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted the opposition to 23 for one in a disappointing initial phase and they were subsequently reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their score, putting on 82 runs for the fourth wicket stand before the batter retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was advantage Bangladesh approaching the remaining two overs, with merely 12 additional runs necessary.

Yet, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu and conceded just three scoring runs before the captain's dramatic spell, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all sent back as the Lankan team seized the win at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerves. The seasoned Lankan captain, who moved aside a few of fellow players as she set herself to bowl the decisive over, held her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be many doubts about the team's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing 270 or 280 with Sri Lanka appearing comfortable on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the required total was much lower.

However, the batting side displayed insufficient intent from the start, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 scoring rate during the initial phase, experiencing a early batting collapse, and ultimately leaving themselves overwhelming to achieve.

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

It required them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket, with keeper Joty being unable to take a tough opportunity as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 runs before the captain was spared from a return catch chance against Rabeya.

The batter was dropped once more on 55 and her score of 63, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover position, before ultimately being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with partners being dismissed around her.

Later in the game, there was additionally a missed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a somewhat regrettable, with Rubya Haider substituting with the keeping duties due to an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've failed to catch 14 opportunities from a available 27 at this competition and have the worst catching success rate (less than 50%) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are generally moving in the right direction – they are participating in just their second 50-over World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding is a obvious concern which needs improvement.