Sri Lanka overcomes Bangladesh to keep their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Navi Mumbai

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

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

The Lankan side emerge victorious by seven runs

The Lankan cricket team took four wickets in the decisive innings segment to complete a heart-stopping victory over their opponents and preserve their faint hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Needing a modest target of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, Bangladesh needed nine runs from the remaining six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu secured three important dismissals in four bowls and de Silva ran out Nahida to achieve a dramatic victory for the Lankan team.

The win – the Lankan team's initial of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against Australia and New Zealand – pushes them tied on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, on the other hand, experienced a fifth successive loss since winning their first match against the Pakistani team and have been removed from contention.

Even though the Bangladeshi side made the excellent commencement, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a poor fielding performance.

They offered reprieves to Hasini Perera, who was spilled multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

While the Sri Lankan skipper could not make it count, dismissed lbw for 46 a single bowl after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced the opposition pay.

She registered a maiden international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 bowls and contributing to an significant 74-run stand fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's 3-27, fought themselves back into the contest, with Nilakshi's wicket in the 34th over initiating a Sri Lanka downfall from 174-4 to 202 complete.

While batting second, the Lankan team's initial pace attack Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani restricted Bangladesh to 23 with one wicket down in a lacklustre initial phase and they were afterwards brought down to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty rebuilt their innings, adding 82 for the fourth wicket stand before Sharmin withdrew due to injury for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was advantage the chasing team approaching the final two bowling phases, with just 12 additional runs needed.

Nevertheless, Dasanayaka removed Ritu Moni and allowed only three runs before Athapaththu's decisive intervention, with Rabeya, Nahida, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all dismissed as Sri Lanka seized the triumph at the final moment.

In the end, it was a match of nerve. The highly experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a few of teammates as she set herself to deliver the final over, maintained her nerve. Bangladesh did not.

There will be numerous inquiries about Bangladesh's batting performance. They could easily have been pursuing 270 to 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159 for four in the 30th over, but in contrast the required total was significantly less.

Yet, the batting side showed little aggression from ball one, making runs at under 2.5 runs per over during the powerplay, undergoing a early batting collapse, and eventually forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

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

It required them three tries to end the 72-run partnership second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana being unable to take a tough catch while keeping to remove Perera on her score of 23 before Athapaththu was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya Khan.

Perera was dropped again on 55 and 63 runs, the last attempt going straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before ultimately being trapped leg before wicket by Shorna as she tried to increase the tempo with partners getting out beside her.

Subsequently in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, although the second one was a somewhat unfortunate, with Jhilik standing in with the gloves after an physical problem to the regular keeper.

Regrettably for the team, such fielding issues are not at all a isolated incident. They've dropped 14 catches from a available 27 opportunities at this World Cup and have the poorest catch efficiency (less than 50%) of the competing sides.

They are a side who are generally moving in the proper way – they are participating in only their second 50-over World Cup in the end – but substandard fielding performance is a obvious issue which demands focus.