Sri Lanka defeats Bangladesh to maintain their World Cup campaign alive

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last over to achieve a nail-biting triumph over Bangladesh and keep their slim aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals alive.

Needing a attainable total of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team wanted nine additional runs from the remaining six deliveries.

However, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four deliveries and de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – Sri Lanka's maiden of the tournament after three unsuccessful matches and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and New Zealand – elevates them level on four points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a fifth straight defeat since winning their first match against Pakistan and have been knocked out.

While the Bangladeshi side got off to the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the initial ball of the game to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne, they were appropriately penalized for a disappointing fielding performance.

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

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper could not take advantage, sent back lbw for 46 one ball after being missed by Rabeya Khan, Perera made Bangladesh pay.

She registered a first international 50-run score, scoring 85 from 99 balls and building an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, led by Shorna Akter's 3-27, dragged themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 all out.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Malki Madara and Prabodhani limited the opposition to 23 for one in a uninspiring opening overs and they were subsequently reduced to 44 for three.

Sharmin and Joty reconstructed their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket before the batter withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th innings segment.

It was advantage Bangladesh entering the remaining two bowling phases, with merely 12 additional runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and gave away only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida Akter, skipper Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as the Lankan team snatched the triumph at the very end.

Ultimately, it was a match of composure. The highly experienced Lankan captain, who moved aside a several of teammates as she got ready to bowl the last over, maintained her nerve. The opposition failed to.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing around 270-280 with Sri Lanka appearing settled on 159 with four wickets down in the 30th bowling phase, but rather the chase was considerably smaller.

Yet, Bangladesh displayed insufficient aggression from the very beginning, making runs at under 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, suffering a top-order collapse, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to achieve.

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

It needed them three tries to terminate the 72-run second-wicket collaboration, with keeper Nigar Sultana being unable to grab a difficult opportunity behind the stumps to dismiss Perera on 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled chance chance against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was missed again on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt flying right to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover, before eventually being dismissed leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she sought to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out beside her.

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

Regrettably for Bangladesh, such fielding issues are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 catches from a possible 27 opportunities at this World Cup and boast the lowest catch efficiency (48.1 percent) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are overall moving in the correct path – they are playing in just their second one-day World Cup ultimately – but substandard fielding performance is a prominent issue which demands focus.